Will Phelps have to break WR to beat Cavic? Does Phelps have some rest this morning (west Coast) in order to beat this Serb-American?
Rest will make all the difference for Phelps. Having a couple of races in will help Crocker crank one out in finals. Cavic might drop to 3rd. Crocker looked pretty good in semis last night, I think he's getting warmed up and he and Phelps will both beat Cavic.
Regardless of outcome, it will be exciting to watch.
"One day, if they talk about how Michael Phelps won 7 gold medals and lost a chance to win 8, they'll talk about who that guy is who took it away from him," said Cavic, who was born in Anaheim. "I'd love to be that guy."
www.ocregister.com/.../cavic-phelps-olympic-2125547-won-games
Like Ande's comment
Should be interesting tonight; cavic did very well in his heat setting an olympic record 50.76- i am sure that phelps was surprised by cavic's effort, not surprised by cavic swimming his first 50 m fast but cavic has shaved off 1 second off of his second 50m time (27.31)compared to his 2007 world effort in australia (28.28)and his h2h effort against phelps at the swimvitational in omaha in june (28.58).
and almost reeled cavic in falling short by about 0.1 seconds; interesting to note phelps swam his fastest ever 2nd 50m in the 100m butterfly heat - chasing cavic (26.46);
knowing that he can't let cavic (or crocker who also swims a fast first 50) phelps came out to set a faster first 50 in the semi which he did swimming a 24.24 in the first 50 (he clocked 24.41 in the heat).
Phelps first 50m in 100m butterfly time best was 23.99 in 2007 world - so he can go faster in his first 50. More impressively phelps swam the 24.24 time in the semi - just after setting a world record in the 200 IM 45 minutes earlier
putting the two legs together first 50 from the semi 24.24 and 2nd 50 from the heat 26.46 and you have a 50.70 - better than cavic
phelps has shown that he saves his best for the finals as he has had to pace himself all week - he had his longest rest time over the last 24 hours and was able to skip out on the 4 x100 IM relay heats for further rest(interestingly crocker took part in the prelim relay);
I think Phelps starts very fast and dares and anyone to stay with him. crocker will likely swim better than he has in the first two heats but crocker has less rest now and phelps has bested crocker 3 times already this year unless crocker was really sandbagging in the heat, and semi
Prediction:
Gold: Phelps 50.26 WR
what did I write, it comes down to finals, everyone is all talk until that final, that's where the true champ comes out, everyone can talk as much smack as they want, it seems to come back and bite them though, kinda like a curse, kinda like the french saying they "were going to smash the americans"
Hmmm, they just said that Serbia has filed a protest...
Well I thought he touched first too. Maybe the pads don't register until after a certain amount of pressure? I can't see this getting turned over though, and it would be ugly if they did. How about a redo? I could watch that one again!
Well I thought he touched first too. Maybe the pads don't register until after a certain amount of pressure? I can't see this getting turned over though, and it would be ugly if they did. How about a redo? I could watch that one again!
Of course they have to register at a certain level of pressure. Otherwise waves would trigger the pads. I see no way they could overturn the results from the timing system. Video? No way.....
pads don't lie. of course there has to be a certain amount of pressure, otherwise the wave in front of the swimmer would stop the clock. with it that close, I don't see how anyone is going to be able to determine who touched first without relying on the pads.
And if they do overturn it, what type of precedent does that set. All close races subject to manual review and overturning? At that point, do we go back to hand held stop watches and the ref's eyeballs?
Yeah absolutely it'd be a horror show.
