Women’s 100 Breaststroke – 2013 World Championship Trials – as reported by swimswam:
Breeja Larson worked out her kinks in the 200 breaststroke earlier in this meet, but she has no such problem in the 100 breaststroke. For the 2nd-straight year, Larson is the USA Swimming National Champion in the 100 meter breaststroke, this time with a 1:06.16. That’s just a couple-of-tenths slower than she was at last year’s Trials, but overall is in the same neighborhood.
Larson, when talking about racing next to the fast-starting Hardy, talked about the need to control her speed against one of the world’s best 50 breaststrokers. The splits, however, didn’t show that Larson gave up much on the front-half of this race.
Comparative splits between the two:
Larson: 30.94/35.22 – 1:06.16
Hardy: 30.91/35.58 – 1:06.49
That should give Larson an option to enter the 50 breaststroke at the World Championships as her fourth event (medley, 100, 200 breaststroke), while it gives Hardy just a 2nd and 3rd swim (50 breast, 100 breast, 400 medley relay). Things are breaking as they needed to, and after this race, the women almost became guaranteed of being able to take all qualifiers to Worlds.
Micah Lawrence took 3rd in 1:07.27, which is a lifetime best for her. She’s looking sharp after a short time back with David Marsh at SwimMAC this summer.
Molly Hannis from Tennessee took 4th in 1:07.48, establishing herself as a true national-level contender at this meet as we head toward Rio. She’s only 21 and will be just a junior next year.
Texas’ Laura Sogar was 5th in 1:07.88, with Katy Freeman from Santa Barbara taking 6th in 1:08.00.
Out of the B-Final, Megan Jendrick, the 2000 Olympic Champion in this race, won in 1:08.80, followed closely by a nice swim from Columbia’s Katie Meili in 1:08.82.
Video edit by Coleman Hodges.
I tried to count stroke rates a bit:
Hardy 22/26 = 48
Larsson 19/23 = 42
Pedersen 18/20 = 38 (Canet, Mare Nostrum Series)
Soni 24/29 = 53 (London)
Meilutyte 23/29 = 52(London)
It’s worth mentioning that about 20 percent increase in the quantity of strokes over the second half seems to be typical. As for Pedersen her increase is only about 11 percent and it is full three strokes less than the rest needed (over the last 50m).
Sorry. I mean Pedersen needed full three stroke less than Larsson who also seems to swim with quite few strokes.
Wow, can’t believe that Pedersen takes 4 fewer than Breeja. Breeja swims so long…I mean 1-2 wouldn’t shock me but 4 does a little.
Women’s 100 breast final
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnKGn5AxBFM