Word from the deck in Berkeley, California, where former Olympic Champion Anthony Ervin has been training, is that his comeback plans are being kept under wraps. He hasn’t really told anyone where he’s expecting to go with this (perhaps even he is just waiting and seeing), but that his frequency and intensity of practice is ramping up. Three weeks ago, he made his first official competitive swim in four years at a small Masters meet in Cali, and he’ll continue what seems to be a comeback today and tomorrow at the Pacific Short Course Meters Championships in Walnut Creek, California.
At this meet, he’s entered in the same 50 free, 100 free, and 100 IM that he was last time, and that’s probably about all he needs to be swimming at this point. He’s the top-seeded swimmer in all of his events, but he won’t be swimming entirely alone. In the 50 free on Sunday, he’ll be pushed by former Cal teammates Scott Greenwood and Nick Folker, who at their primes were 20.0-or-better 50 freestylers (remember, that’s in a different era, where a 20.0 was on Cal’s all-time top-10 list).
This Pacific Masters Championship meet is often the site of plenty of Masters Records. Last year, Jim Clemmons broke the World Record in the 400 IM for the 60-64 age group, and he will be back again looking for more blood.
Check back here as we will bring you Ervin’s results, as well as any other notable swims, from this meet.