Twelve hours ahead of the start of the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, the official start lists show 18 scratches from the first day of competition. Some of the bigger names to scratch their events were Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Park Taewhan, Lauren Boyle, and Ous Mellouli. Karen Crouse tweeted earlier today that Michael Phelps said his freestyle has been feeling off, and that he would be scratching the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke.
@MichaelPhelps scratched 200 free/ 100 back on first day of #PanPacs2014. Said his freestyle has felt off. #savinghimselffor100fly
— Karen Crouse (@bykaren) August 20, 2014
Although many were hoping to see Michael Phelps swim the 200 freestyle this week, he will be focusing on his 100 butterfly and 200 IM. This week is about putting himself in contention for the World Championship team next summer, and he has the best shot to do so in his fastest two events right now. The relay spots at World Championships typically go to the top 6 individual 200 freestylers, but it will still be up to the coaches discretion if Phelps is on the 800 freestyle relay or not next summer.
Ryan Lochte also scratched his first day event, the 100 backstroke. He was seeded 15th in the men’s 100 backstroke prior to all of the scratches. Although his backstroke is one of his stronger strokes, the United States already has six guys ahead of Lochte in this event, and four of them are ranked top 10 in the world this year.
Park Taewhan will not be swimming the 200 freestyle, which is one of his best events, on day 1. It makes you wonder if he will be scratching the entire meet; he had the second fastest entry time coming into the meet.
There were two major scratches from the freestyle events. Lauren Boyle scratched the women’s 200 freestyle to stay rested for her 800 freestyle (2nd seed) and Ous Mellouli scratched the men’s 1500 Freestyle. Boyle was seeded 6th and Mellouli had the top seed coming into the meet. It was reported last week by the Courier Mail that Ous Mellouli was having Visa trouble and may not make it to the Gold Coast for the meet.
Other American scratches came from Cierra Runge in the 200 freestyle and Elizabeth Beisel in the 100 backstroke.
Canada had 9 scratches from day one, which is half of the total number of scratches. To see all of the day one scratches, check out the list below.
Women’s 200 Freestyle
- Lauren Boyle, New Zealnd 6th seed
- Brittany Maclean, Canada 8th seed
- Cierra Runge, USA 12th seed
- Madeline Groves, Australia 15th seed
Men’s 200 Freestyle
- Park Taewhan, Korea 2nd seed
- Michael Phelps, USA 17th seed
- Yuri Kisil, Canada 31st seed
Women’s 100 Backstroke
- Elizabeth Beisel, USA 19th seed
- Erika Setlenreich-Hodgson, Canada 20th seed
Men’s 100 Backstroke
- Michael Phelps, USA 9th seed
- Ryan Lochte, USA 15th seed
- Yuri Kisil, Canada 25st seed
Women’s 800 Freestyle
- Heather Maitland, Canada 16th seed
- Jade Dasablon, Canada 17th seed
Women’s 200 Butterfly
None
Men’s 200 Butterfly
- Evan White, Canada 12th seed
- Luke Reilly, Canada 13th seed
Men’s 1500 Freestyle
- Oussama Mellouli, Tunisia 1st seed
- Eric Heldin, Canada 3rd seed
Eric Hedlin’s time in the 1500 free was corrected which put him lower in the list; he did not scratch. Phillippe Guertin (Canada) scratched. My guess is he was planning to use it as a warmup for his 10K race later this week, but had 2nd thoughts. Same with the 2 women who scratched in the 800 free.
I don’t think Lochte scratched the 200 free. he’s listed as the 4th seed here http://liveresults.swimming.org.au/sal/2014PP/
He didn’t, he only scratched the 100 back.
Thank you. The article and headline are a bit misleading though. They suggest that 100 back was Lochte’s only prelim swim on Thursday.
concur
Good news for American fans.
According to USA Swimming, prelims will be streamed live by Swimming Australia here:
http://www.swimming.org.au/live
Other than that, we’re stuck with tape-delayed, edited versions of finals according to this schedule:
Sat. Aug. 23 3:30 p.m. – 4:30p ET Pan Pacific Championships NBC
Sun, Aug. 24 1:00 p.m. – 2:30p ET Pan Pacific Championships NB
And the finals? For you Americans or me here in France?
Nothing live?
Finals are at 3/4/5 am for americans
Would be great to know if there is a live stream for the finals ( Europe and Usa times ) , thanks .
what about the final sessions ? maybe we should try sport lemon or something like that
why only prelims… WHY??? 🙁 🙁 🙁
totally suck…
thanks for the info Bystander!
well… we have no choice here guys, just catch some of the finals on NBC (tape-delayed) 😀
So Miss Ledecky tries the insane 200 free/800 free double in the same session?
With the 200 free as warm-up?
I thought she would attack her 800 free world record but if she swims the 200 free just before, it will be much harder, if not impossible.
She may have some competition in the 200 free, and she still has something to prove in that race. The 800 will be a safe win, unless she has the flu and two broken arms.
Very smart decision from Michael.
And of course Lochte and Phelps will be in the 4X200 free relay next year.
If USA wants to win, no other choice possible.
Hopefully on the relay here, is that an option?
Without having done the 200 free either at Nationals or at Pan Pacs, I don’t see a huge case for putting Phelps on the 4×200 free unless he’s done a time trial at camp. But if he’s saying he’s not feeling the free, I doubt he’s thrown down a great time trial.
Always keep in mind that the coaches have the final say and that 2015 world championships is a full year away. Phelps was already 1:48 (I think) this year at a grand prix meet with only a few months of training under his belt. Give him another year and he will be in the 1:45 range easily and considering it only took 1:47 high to make Pan Pacs in the top 4, he will definitely be a strong consideration for the coaches. It’s just not necessarily “fair” to America’s 6th 7th and 8th string 200 freestylers to do so. More of an ethics thing than anything else.
My comment was intended to refer specifically to this summer only. I agree there is at least a decent chance of him swimming the relay next summer.
Do they allow “exhibition” or “B” relays at PanPacs? If so, perhaps the US coaches will swim an “A” relay of the top 4 finishers form Nationals, then a “B” relay of #5, #6, plus Lochte and Phelps. If I were betting, I’d bet on the “B” relay.
Wahooswimfan — pretty sure there is only one heat of relays, and even then, it’s not always a full heat.
i saw a video of Phelps & Ervin practicing the 4×100 free relay a couple days ago in Brisbane. could this be a “hint” that MP is a hidden ace for team USA’s 400 free relay? haha…
too bad, he’s not swimming the 200 free 🙁
I agree. My initial reaction was disappointment over Phelps’s 100 back scratch, as I’m still hoping he’ll make an impact in that event. However, his main goal during this meet should be qualification for worlds, everything else is secondary. His 100 back medal will have to wait until Rio. 🙂
maybe next season Phelps will swim it. 😀
Go MP!
Did Boyle scratch the 200 or the 800? The articles states that she is scratched from the 800, but the lists of scratches show that she is only scratching the 200. Scratching the 800 for her would be a bad decision as she will most likely be in medal contention, behind Ledecky of course.
My apologies, she scratched the 200 to rest for the 800, where she is the 2nd seed behind Ledecky. Should be updated now.
What’s with all the Canadian scratches??
Most of the Canadian scratches are in the swimmers’ secondary events. They probably entered in these events before hand so they had the option to swim it if they wanted to.