The following is not a blow by blow recap of the meet. If you want that, go to a news website or check the results for yourself here.
Kind of burying the lead here, but James Magnussen won the relay for the Australians. He had a 47.4, shocking leadoff that makes me want to go back and redo my 100 freestyle choice. He flipped .1 ahead of Michael Phelps and then outswam him by a half second on the second 50. Did you ever think you would see that?
The 400 free was a disappointing time but not a disappointing race. Tae Hwan Park's 3:42 was probably on the slow end of what most people saw in this race, but watching him effortlessly pull away from the field at the 250 mark was pretty awesome. Sun Yang broke free from a huge pack that was in contention for silver coming down the final stretch.
Finally, right before that men's relay was a nearly as exciting women's relay. It seemed that Netherlands hopes would be dashed when the US got out to a sizable lead on the front half despite going up against Inge Dekker and Ranomi Kromowidjojo. But the Dutch had a nearly flawless back half. A lot of ugly splits on that relay but another great race.
See you tonight...
Walters should have been there instead of GWG and Lezak, please.
ReplyDeleteYeah totally weird overall. Why reserve final's spots for Phelps, Adrian AND Lezak but not Lochte when Lochte outsplit Lezak last summer? And Lochte is swimming roughly a kajillion races over this week, did we really need him to swim prelims of a relay and earn his way on? Lezak is swimming this and the 100 free, shouldn't he have swum on the prelim?
ReplyDelete"(in fact he was slower than not only Weber-Gale but also Walters)."
ReplyDeleteSwimming World is showing Lochte as 48.28, with GWG at 48.49. Is that not correct?
Also, how did Missy Franklin's 52.99 in the relay at finals compare for her? Natalie and Jessica seemed slow compared to that...is that how it typically is?
Missy wasn't even on last summer's pan pac relay, where no one split under 53.4 so I'd say that split is crazy impressive. That is pretty much what you expect from Natalie, but Jessica really tightened up towards the end of the race, she was 53.4 last year.. I feel sometimes she just gets overly tense for big races, that may have been the case here.
ReplyDeleteTo explain the Lochte/Weber Gale thing, Lochte had a relay start, which at this level I think usually means about .5. That is why I said Weber Gale's split was "faster" even though the time straight up was slower.
ReplyDeleteHere's a better question. Why not lead off Robison in the prelims, knowing that he's not the one who's going to be fighting for a finals spot, and then you're more apples-to-apples between Lochte, Walters, and Lochte? Though, I agree that Lochte shouldn't have had to swim prelims at all...
ReplyDeleteDid anyone consider that the coaches may have saw something in 100 free during training camp in AUS that made them unsure about putting him in the final? Yes its possible. He may be the "world's best swimmer" but he earned that title in a summer with no WC or Oly. Its the first race of the WC, we don't know what the coaches saw. Fact is he was slower that GWG in the prelims so therefore the coaches weren't wrong to not put him in.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteYou are right, it is undoubtedly because the coaches felt that Lochte needed to prove his way onto the final relay. Could it be that Head Coach Eddie Reese, who has final say in relays, thought it was unfair to have 4 swimmers guaranteed onto the final relay while two of his guys (Walters, Weber-Gale) had a pointless prelim swim?
Good job Eddie, you coach both Texas boys and can't even pick the right one for the relay...
ReplyDeleteWHAT IS THAT NOISE? Oh, its the alarm I set for anyone directly criticizing Eddie Reese in public. It hasn't gone off in years!
ReplyDelete