It was fun to watch Susan von der Lippe swim the 100 fly in prelims. She moved up in the field roughly 30 places and finished 105 out of 137 to the best of my memory. I talked to her afterwards (she was hanging out at the motel pool with her kids and husband) and she thought it might have been close to her lifetime best (= her qualifying time) since she didn't swim much fly as a kid. Let's see what she can do today in the 100 ***.
Great to see world records in the first two final events. With all the records falling this year, I was not surprised to see two under the WR in the men's 400 IM - I'm betting this will happen more than once this year.
For me, the most exciting race was the 400 free. Great swims by the top four swimmers!
Also nice to see some swimmers move way up in the fields with some big time drops. Over 12,000 in the audience for both the prelims and finals yesterday. It took a while for the crowd to figure out how to cheer for people swimming breaststroke...
I saw the SVDL interview on FloSwim and thought it was great. It was obvious how happy she was just to be involved...nothing but smiles.
Yes, the 400 Free was an awesome race...right to the finish. Keller has really fallen off of the mark and Jensen surprised me (and Vanderkaay as well I suspect). Vendt really turned it up on the last 50 meters but it was just not quite enough.
Yeah, Jensen surprised me as well. He jumped right up on it.
I'm so glad that Master swimmers are recognizing Susan VDL. With all the contraversy surrounding "other" older female participants, it's refreshing to hear about a highly (and I can't emphasize that word enough) accomplished swimmer who swims because she genuinely loves the sport. No endorsements, no autographs, no cover shots on magazines (however, she did win a cover for Geezer Jock Mag! I heard she even got a free T-shirt for that one!) just a passion for swimming. The woman is amazing in AND out of the water. I think more Masters need to find inspiration from people like Susan. HEY! WAIT!!! There ARE no people like her! She's one in a million!
I saw the SVDL interview on FloSwim and thought it was great. It was obvious how happy she was just to be involved...nothing but smiles.
Yes, the 400 Free was an awesome race...right to the finish. Keller has really fallen off of the mark and Jensen surprised me (and Vanderkaay as well I suspect). Vendt really turned it up on the last 50 meters but it was just not quite enough.
We were hanging out with Susan and her kids at the motel pool after her 100 breaststroke swim yesterday. She is just glad to be here and happy that her events are over so she can just schmooze with the other athletes.
Her kids were practicing water ballet in the pool and had to show us a few moves they were working on. Would have stayed longer but had to get the beer in the fridge.....
The two women's backstroke WRs in the prelims were remarkable to watch. We met Robert Margalis' parents at the entrance and they reported that Robert had said that the crowd noise was unbelievable. So much noise that the sound was clearly audible to swimmers with their heads in the water. It certainly sent chills up and down my spine in the stands. Great to see so much positive for our sport.
Meanwhile, every pool in the area is full of Trials attendees looking for a place to work out. We trained at the Council Bluffs downtown Y yesterday and it was a complete zoo. Some of the locals were really bent out of shape but most welcomed us.
Another great day: two WR a day is all we ask! I think everyone in the audience expected to see at least the men break the WR in the 100 back final. There was a lot of pressure on Aaron in the lead up races...
Other great moments: watching Megan Jendrick's face after the finish of the 100 *** and watching Natalie use the last 50 of the 200 IM to warm down in the prelims. Wish I had the confidence to do that! And, another record crowd watching a swim event in the US.
Oh yeah, significant jump/flinch movement. He was in lane 8, so really noticeable. Didn't hear the outcome of the protest. Didn't see any camera flashes or beeping sounds. There are many flashes at the start even though the announcer has requested over and over not to do that.
Great 100 free races. Nice to see Nick Brunelli place so well. Should be an interesting final tonight.
Question of the day: where is the back-up timing system? There are no timers with watches and no back-up buttons on the touch pads.
Answer: there are four cameras mounted on a truss above the start/finish line. They have a frame rate of 100 frames/second so that they can stop action at 0.01 second. They are used as timing backup and to resolve false start and two-handed touch issues.
Very cool.
What was the answer on Crocker's DQ? Did he false start? I didn't get to watch prelims.
Great 100 free races. Nice to see Nick Brunelli place so well. Should be an interesting final tonight.
Question of the day: where is the back-up timing system? There are no timers with watches and no back-up buttons on the touch pads.
Answer: there are four cameras mounted on a truss above the start/finish line. They have a frame rate of 100 frames/second so that they can stop action at 0.01 second. They are used as timing backup and to resolve false start and two-handed touch issues.
