Men’s 100 Breaststroke – 2013 World Championshp Trials – as reported by swimswam:
Kevin Cordes wanted one thing to be known after winning the 2013 national title in the 100 breaststroke and qualifying for a second (and by extension 3rd and 4th in the 50 breaststroke and 400 medley relay) event: He is both a yards swimmer, and a meters swimmer.
Cordes swam a 59.99 to win the Men’s 100 breaststroke, breaking a minute for the first time in his career. This gives some promise to the future of American breaststroking, as he’s the youngest American to ever break a minute in this race (none have ever done it as a teenager in the past).
In 2nd place was a swimmer having a fantastic meet: Nic Fink from the University of Georgia. He’s also only 19, and went a 1:00.24. That’s a full second better than he was coming into this meet. He has become a well-known quantity in the NCAA ranks, but was still on the fringe of the National ranks before taking 3rd in the 200 and 2nd in the 100 here.
That meant that Mike Alexandrov, who has just had a phenomenal season, missed out on the team with a 3rd-place finish in 1:00.39. He looked great all season long, and finished it off with a better time than he was at last year’s Olympic Trials. He was caught by the moving pieces around him, however.
Stanford’s BJ Johnson, who’s already on the team, took 4th in 1:00.68, and was followed by Clark Burckle (1:01.14) and Scott Weltz (1:01.34).
In 7th place was 50 breast champion Kevin Steel in 1:01.80, another lifetime best. Josh Prenot was 1:01.81 for 8th.
whats next for alexandrov?
General observation: Fink swam the best technical race. Very few breaststrokers in this meet split their races well. Almost across the board, in the 100 and 200, both men and women – out too fast on the first 50 and paid for it on the last 50. Sogar’s kamikaze strategy of taking out her 200 in :32, just a few 10ths off her all-out 50 time, cost her a spot on the team. You can’t win it on the 1st 50, but you sure can lose it!
Fluidg, this is a very good point! A lot of swimmers these day are taught to take out a race really fast, which generally is a 90% success strategy in a short course race. But Long course is very different. Majority of the close races are won by the swimmers who are able to distribute their energy throughout the entire race, which usually means a very well paced beginning of the race.
This is especially applicable from a psychological point of view. Being a swimmer who is trying to hold on for dear life, while seeing the other one catching you in your peripheral vision, or being a swimmer who is charging to the finish in a full stride… Read more »
True. It’s much easier to hold on or split evenly in SCY. LCM is completely different. It takes better conditioning and more skillful energy management. Totally unforgiving.
There’s not a world record in the books that was split poorly. The last 50 (really the last 15) is always the key.
Men’s 100 breast final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZMHR-y5VKU