Aside from FINA’s love relationship Michael Phelps, one we understand and don’t blame them for leveraging while Mr. Swimming attends 2013 FINA World Championships, the relay selection process is “the topic” of day one. This one topic may be why #BCN2013 was trending worldwide on Twitter this morning.
Twitter via @Mirabella76
Women’s 4×100 relay blewup Twitter. The love was for Megan Romano’s Lezak-like anchor:
And for Natalite Coughlin’s strong relay, which got a shoutout from Missy Franklin’s coach:
SwimSwim Commenters on the men’s & women’s 4×100 free relay:
HKSWIMMER
4) Australia choke again! This is very very bad news for the men’s team, and for all their talk about being able to rise up to the challenge and put last year behind them, they fail yet again. Impressed with McEvoy, but Mags really has a problem with his head.
5) Russians – maybe they can’t hold their WUG taper. And disappointing swim from Izotov as well. The question is now: can he hold his form for the 200m, and can Vlad keep it up later in the week? He swam his relay leg very differently from the WUG swim as well.
6) Agnel… is not in good form. Neither is Muffat, with a disastrous 400m free. Big changes to come from France, and post-Barcelona is likely to be quite interesting. However, for the rest of France, Bousquet/Manaudou seem to be looking good, and a BIG SHOUT to Fabien Gilot for that epic 46.90, followed by Stravius with one of the best comeback turns I have ever seen. Strong form.
Bring on day 2!
NADADOR
I wish Berens were at that relay.
ALSO, I read a lot of disrespectful comments on another page about Coughlin.
She has proved AGAIN just how great she is and how superb a relay swimmer she is.
For all of those who made derogatory comments about her, I would like to see some acknowledgement. Heck, I would like to see some apologies for Coughlin!!
BOBO GIGI
Women’s 4X100 free relay.
Wow! What a race! The close race we could expect.
Cate Campbell was amazing as starter. She has shown she’s alone in sprint this year. 52.33 is huge! She has made a Magnussen 2011 and I thought the race was finished because Missy hasn’t been bad, 53.5 is her average time, but she hasn’t been great as I expected, secretly under 53.
I was sad for Simone Manuel when I learned she wasn’t in finals. She deserved the spot. But Natalie has again shown she was a great champion with huge underwaters. Her 52.98 relay split was very important.
Shannon Vreeland has done what we could expect from her. Great work in 53.22.
And the best for the end with Megan Romano, yes one of my favorite swimmers. We must now call her Megan “Lezak” Romano. She deserves a national recognition in USA! Of course Alicia Coutts was very tired after all her races of the day but Megan has again been huge. She had to be amazing and she has been amazing with her 52.60 relay split.
Tough loss for Australia. I feel bad for Alicia Coutts.
But great win for USA! Last time USA had won this relay in a big world meet was in 2003 in…Barcelona!
DDIAS
Now you can surpress Lezak term when someone blasts a incredible relay split.Lezak was a shiny time, Romano was pure textile beast force.
Campbell made the times i was expecting her to do years ago, but due to injuries/ilness she never made it.Just look her times at 14-15 years-old.Amazing.
Miki Uchida went .01 .
Roberts & Dorsognia went .44 & .52.
Half a second on a flying start . Hey AiS we want our money back from all that start & turn technology that you are clearly not using.
If the federal government were not in disarray & run by a madman I would put in a formal request for Please Explain.
But I know better.
Topic: Changeovers (reaction time)
If you ignore the reaction time of the lead-off, but analyse the variances in remaining swimmers, the results would have been:
Men:
eq.1 AUS
eq.1 FRA
3rd RUS
4th USA
Women:
1st AUS
2nd USA
3rd NED
Australia lost both relays on changeovers. Surely some soul-searching and analysies to follow. USA (probably on the back of NCAA) had much better reaction times.
Yes . To Tommasio d & James Roberts.
Congratulations . Your reaction times were the slowest & 2nd slowest of all 64 relay swimmers – male & female. The 63rd & 64th fastest .
Fellow squaddie Alicia went .21 on her 5th race for the day.
Are the men’s team mad.?
.
Feigan too inexperienced to anchor. Lochte would have made a better anchor. Grevers was no. six at trials and not even a prelim swim. Berens tripped us all up. Ervin was hero of day.
Where are all those people saying that US men wouldn’t medal. You can debate the makup but the “tude gets darn close where it was said no chance. Same with girls with previous comments on Natalie on her swimming and being different in pictures. The “tude” and she has earned it. Same with Ramano you learn it in US swimming Club, College and HS.
Are you sure people were saying US men won’t medal?
In my prediction contest pick, I put US men for silver (100% correct), and US women for silver (incorrect, but after the prelims yesterday, I said several times that US women is favorite to win).
Did anyone notice Coughlin was drafting Campbell on the second lap?
Coughlin is a very experienced and smart swimmer.
Romano was also moving closer to the lane with Australia.
mckeon tried to move away from the lane from Vreeland.
Yes, this is where experience start to pay dividends. Smart swimmers indeed! It reminds me of the Men’s relay in London as French and Aussies tried to made Cullen Jones as Hot Dog, Cullen was the weenie. Cullen tried to swim just as middle of the lane as possible. Especially the Frenchman dives in and moves immediately beside Cullen’s lane rope.
Yes, this is where the coaches’ choice of experience paid dividends. No one in the world would have predicted 52.9 for Natalie.
And for all we know, Simone Manuel might have expressed some reservations or nervousness. She was several tenths slower during prelims, after all.
Fabien Gilot was the lone bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming men’s sprint relay (relative to pre-meet expectations). I thought all four teams would be at least 3:10 and that it would require a sub 3:10 to win.
Who thinks Ervin gets the nod for prelims for the 4×100 medley?
After all of the politics from yesterday, it wouldn’t surprise me if Connor Dwyer had the spot.
(But I do hope Ervin gets the nod).
Thank God for the talented, articulate and beautiful Natalie Coughlin. She is swimming royalty. Always gracious, doesn’t look like a man in a speedo, doesn’t oo and goo like a Taylor Swift of Swimming. Just Thank You Natalie Coughlin! Thank You!