After the unpublicised WR from Schoeman in September of 20.64, the frenchman Amaury Leveaux has gone 20.48 in the semi final of the European Short course.!!!!!
Whilst I like the race suits (just ordered a B70) it does seem records are being broken far too frequently. This 50m free has gone 3 times this year.
www.omegatiming.com/.../index.htm
but the SCM 50 free WR was broken in Nov 2007 by Nystrand (20.93??) pre- new tech suits.
so I think we've just reached a era where swimmers can swim faster.
When Bolt broke the 100 and 200 records I didn't hear people giving credit to his shoes.
His SDKs from a dive and a turn are obviously good (last week he broke the WR SCM in a 50 fly - 22.2), but look at how he gained an advantage from the field after the turn in yesterday's semi-final 50 free WR.
www.youtube.com/watch
so I think we've just reached a era where swimmers can swim faster.
I think you're right. I hope you're right!! I just hope this arguement about suits is sorted soon, and hope I haven't just wasted £250!
Thanks for the link, Dimitri. Are you really from Moscow? Reading Gorky Park right now.
I think that in this guy's case, the suit probably helped, but the SDK seemed to REALLY help.
It will be interesting to see what changes come 37 years from now in freestyle mechanics, 37 years being the same interlude that separates me today from my college swimming in 1971. We didn't use goggles in practice, and were told to let the water hit us mid-forehead to foster hydroplaning. If anyone had tried dolphin kicks underwater for 15 meters, they would have been sent for pychiatric evaluation.
Which, actually, still seems warranted in some ways.
I wonder if SDKs are the reason. I know they've been around for a while, but it seems they are increasingly de riguer in freestyle. The sport is being taken over by the Large Footed!
His SDKs from a dive and a turn are obviously good (last week he broke the WR SCM in a 50 fly - 22.2), but look at how he gained an advantage from the field after the turn in yesterday's semi-final 50 free WR.
Excuse me for being a LCM-believer. That WR was 60% start/turn/SDK and only 40% swimming.
The most impressive of all is the new 100m WR SCM, 45.12!!!
Leveaux is a huge swimmer, over 2m tall but he's not too much pumped like Bernard.
His underwater are in the same class of Phelps at least, off his last turn, he has breakout at around 12m, I've never see anybody do it in 100m SCM before in international competition at last turn, zoomed further away from Magnini (46.2).
45.12!! Wow unreal...
These new suits are true amazing, the old record demolished by 0.7 sec! is it a Joke ?
