Despre zonarea efortului

Polarised training and intensity zones (cont.)

I've just had a sneak peek at the new issue of Peak Performance (published tomorrow, Tuesday, September 30th), where I read a particularly interesting article on "polarised training" by Andrew Hamilton.

If you're not familiar with it, polarised training is the concept of training specific qualities. To put it another way, it is about examining the intensity zones of a sport and then training according to those demands.

In team sports, we can use similar concepts. In zone 1 we accrue volume -- in team sport this is often the slower aspect of training, such as learning set plays or moves from the playbook.

In zone 2 we supplement this with higher intensity work to accrue "fitness" adaptations, but these volumes will be less than zone 1. Finally, in zone 3 we accrue moderate volumes -- high intensity or overspeed training -- to really challenge the body's ability to work, in our case in the "red zone".

Because of the intensity of zone 3 work, we necessarily have to have quite small volumes. This is because physiologically it is very difficult to sustain, and also there is the injury risk from unrestrained use of high threshold training.

The real trick is in the "programming" of all this. That is to say, how the pieces of the jigsaw fit together. We tend to employ the higher speed work when the athletes are at their freshest, simply to reduce injury risk. Having said that the aim, of course, is over time to alter what "high intensity" actually is.

At the start of the journey, high intensity may be running for 2 minutes at 15kph. As the athlete becomes better trained, this may move from a zone 3 task to a zone 2 task. Clearly, then, the programme needs to be moulded on an ongoing basis, according to the phase of the season, goals and progress of the athlete.

But there's increasing evidence that a polarised training approach is optimum for maximising gains in endurance performance.

To read Andrew's article on this in Peak Performance, and learn how you too can benefit from polarised training, click here to take out a low cost trial today.

'Til next week,

Stay robust amigos!

@DavidGJoyce

"Asta-i muzica ce-mi place" ...

SWIMMING from Internet

TAVI  [ de cand tot postez fel de fel de lucrari sau emailuri, si mereu ma vedeam ca singur fiind..., acum vad ca nu-i asa, am alaturi de mine un valoros antrenor, omagiile mele Tavi, 'a lu'  Teleaga'..., succes

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de ma uit la baremurile celor de peste ocean... aprca vad ca destui inotatori de-ai nostri, care poate chair au facut istorie, ar avea loc intre aceste baremuri.... nu-i mai numesc ca sa nu zica 'unii' ca am preferinte..., dar stiti si voi

 

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 USA Swimming Sets Qualifying Time Standards for 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming

         

9/18/2014

USA Swimming today announced the qualifying time standards for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming  slated for Sunday, June 26, through Sunday, July 3, 2016, in Omaha, Nebraska, at the CenturyLink Center Omaha.

The eight-day competition serves as the sole qualifier for the pool swimmers on the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“The announcement of the Olympic Trials qualifying standards is always an exciting time in every Olympic cycle,” USA Swimming National Team Director Frank Busch said. “Thousands of swimmers across the United States now have the goal of achieving these times, and we wish them all the best in qualifying to chase their Olympic dreams in Omaha in 2016.”

Across the board, the 2016 Olympic Trials qualifying standards are about 1 percent faster than in 2012. For more details on how the criteria were determined, visit usaswimming.org  for an exclusive Q&A with USA Swimming Performance Database Director Larry Herr.

The qualifying time standards for the 2016 Olympic Trials were announced Thursday at the United States Aquatic Sports Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. An archived webcast can be viewed via usaswimming.org/trials .

Qualifying times must be posted in a USA Swimming sanctioned, observed or approved competition between July 30, 2014, and the 2016 Olympic Trials entry deadline. Only long-course meters times are considered for Trials qualification.

For the 2016 Olympic Trials, two temporary 50-meter pools will be installed by Myrtha Pools in the CenturyLink Center Omaha, the state-of-the-art, 17,000-seat sports and entertainment venue in downtown Omaha.


2014 State of the Sport: A Tradition of Growth

         

9/20/2014

Every year at the United States Aquatics Sports Convention, USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus delivers a State of the Sport address in the House of Delegates session.  Below is the text of his 2014 report to the USA Swimming membership in Jacksonville.

The 2000 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming were held at The Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana.  At the time, “The Nat,” as we all called it, was recognized as the preeminent aquatic venue in the country.  More than 4,000 spectators were crammed into the building along with more than a thousand athletes and coaches.  There were even scalpers outside hawking tickets.

Inside, television cameras were set up throughout the venue, and a track camera was moving up and down along the pool deck to follow the leaders.  A tape-delayed broadcast was set to air on NBC the following weekend.

On the last night of those 2000 Olympic Trials, I climbed to the top of the diving tower in order to get a panoramic view of things.

Down in the pool, Eric Vendt was on his way to setting a new American Record in the 1500 Free, and he also became the first American male to break the 15-minute barrier.

The atmosphere was electric, our sport’s finest hour.  As I surveyed the scene from my perch atop the diving tower I saw an event that was bursting at the seams.  It wanted to grow, but we were already in the country’s finest aquatic venue, so where could we go?

The next morning at breakfast, everyone was buzzing about what a great event it had been, and they were right, it was a great event.  But the challenge I gave to our staff that morning was to figure out how we would take the U.S. Olympic Team Trials to a whole new level.  How could we take what was an outstanding swim meet, and turn it into a major sporting spectacle?  I wanted to produce an event that would attract a wider audience. We needed more seats, we needed more promotion, and we needed live television!

This was the turning point that led to our constructing a temporary 10,000-seat swim stadium in a parking lot in Long Beach, California for the 2004 Olympic Trials.  And when that event proved to be successful and people wanted to know what we would do next, we took the event to a 17,000-seat sports and entertainment arena in Omaha, Nebraska.

The story of how USA Swimming has transitioned this Trials event into what is arguably the best run, best promoted and most exciting U.S. Olympic Team Trials event is just one way in which we have helped our sport to grow and change, and become an important part of the American sporting landscape.  

With the title of this year’s State of the Sport being “A Tradition of Growth,” sharing this story with you seemed like a good place to start.

Many other changes have been made, and many more are still to come, but before I talk about them let’s first take a look at our current scorecard.


By every metric that I can think of, USA Swimming is doing exceptionally well

• Our membership has topped 400,000; more than 350,000 of whom are athlete members, more than we’ve ever had before.  We have more than 18,000 coach members and 2,800 member clubs.

• From 2004 to 2014 we had an increase of more than 107,000 athletes, which represents 46% growth.  Our retention rate is 75%, and for athletes age 13 and older the retention rate increases to more than 90%.  In today’s youth sport marketplace these are eye-popping positive numbers.

• Additionally, our outreach membership numbers are the highest ever, as are the number of coach members and officials.

• Our television presence is excellent.  We have more hours of television coverage than ever before in a non-Olympic year, and our broadcast partners are pleased with our ratings in what is an increasing competitive marketplace.

• Our sponsor satisfaction is high, with all eleven major corporate partners actively engaged; and their collective collaboration with the SwimToday campaign is a groundbreaking development.

• Our financial position is strong.  Revenue streams are steady and expenses are well-controlled.  A best practice recommendation for non-profits is to have six months of cash in reserve, and USA Swimming has reserves for seven and one-half months.

• The U.S. Olympic Committee has recently completed a research project titled “Swimming Excellence Study.”  This in-depth case study presents a comprehensive review of our National Team’s success, with an emphasis on the culture of USA Swimming’s program.  The study is now being used as a resource to help other U.S. Olympic sports organizations improve.

• Our National Team athletes continue to represent themselves in a way in which we can all be proud, and their accomplishments both in and out of the water are extraordinary.  USA Swimming continues to be the #1 ranked swimming nation in the world.  Team USA put on a great show at this summer’s Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, winning 16 gold medals and 43 total medals.

We attribute USA Swimming’s success to a disciplined commitment to a business plan that has been constructed around the three pillars of BUILD, PROMOTE and ACHIEVE:  Build the base, Promote the sport, and Achieve sustained international success.

For more than 15 years, these aspirational objectives have been our bedrock foundation and the guiding principles for how we prioritize our work and allocate our resources.  There is no reason to change a winning formula and BUILD, PROMOTE and ACHIEVE will continue to be our core objectives as we move forward.

In line with the theme of a Tradition of Growth, I’d like to share some thoughts about how we go about our work. In particular, I’d like to focus on an essential element of our organizational character: our entrepreneurial spirit.

Growth can occur in two different ways. It can be incremental or it can be in leaps forward.  Organizations, and especially non-profit membership organizations, are generally very satisfied if their growth can be steady and incremental.  By their nature, these organizations are conservative and look to avoid risks.

However, where USA Swimming is different is that we do occasionally look to take a well-calculated leap forward. These leaps come with risks and we do our best to minimize the risks through good planning.  We also look to be very strategic when we take a leap forward.  We want the leap to take us to a higher place, but once at that higher place we then want to maintain that new position and continue to grow incrementally from there.

At USA Swimming, we have tried to blend the upside benefits of the entrepreneurial spirit with the transparent accountability that comes with leading a non-profit, membership organization. This blended approach has resulted in a number of major advancements for our sport.

It may not seem like a big deal today, but creating Splash magazine was a very big deal back in 1998.  Published six times a year and distributed to a quarter-million homes, Splash magazine is today considered by many to be USA Swimming’s most tangible benefit.  It’s hard to imagine a swimming family living room without a copy of Splash magazine sitting on the coffee table.



All of our major domestic and international events are televised today, but this wasn't always the case.  A number of years ago, we made a decision that having our major events on television would be critical to our future growth.  We also saw this as the means for attracting sponsorship investment in our sport.

At a time when our annual operating budget was substantially smaller, and thus the margin of risk substantially greater, we took some deep breaths and made the investment to purchase television air time and pay for the production costs associated with producing a network quality broadcast.

It was a huge leap, but it was a leap that landed us in an entirely better place.  Televised events raised the public profile of our sport, and introduced swimming to a wider audience of sports fans.  Television has also provided a fantastic platform for our athletes to showcase their skills and become recognizable stars.

Today, it seems like a no-brainer decision, but I can tell you that there were a lot of sleepless nights in those earlier days when we worried about the return on our television investment.



Creating new events is an enormous undertaking.  We created and launched the Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool because it gave us another stage to place our sport on network television. The Duel in the Pool is held every other year in December and broadcast on NBC.



Creating the Golden Goggle Awards was something we felt strongly about because we wanted to establish a year-end, gala celebration to recognize our National Team athletes and coaches.  We rotate the event between New York and Los Angeles so that we have a high-profile presence in these major media markets.



The Golden Goggle Awards were also envisioned as an opportunity to bring together our corporate partners and major donors, and the event has become an annual fund raiser for our sport.  Since the launch of the Golden Goggle Awards in 2004, we have raised more than $2M for the USA Swimming Foundation; money which has been reinvested in the Foundation’s programs to save lives and build champions.  Going forward, the USA Swimming Foundation will continue to expand its national footprint with the Make a Splash initiative, and will place a growing emphasis on its support for our National Team athletes and coaches.



This year, we are taking another leap forward with the marketing effort behind our SwimToday campaign.  By now you have hopefully seen some of the elements of the campaign we call “The Funnest Sport.”


We know “funnest” isn’t a real word, and that was exactly why we chose the word.  It’s the sort of thing a kid would say, and it gets the attention of adults.  And so while English teachers may cringe, “The Funnest Sport” campaign is bringing a playful bounce to the promotion of the SwimToday program; and the SwimToday program is helping to attract even more kids to local swim clubs.

So … just for fun, let’s take a look at some of the funnest sport commercials we have created. Watch "The Walk" , "Cannonball"  and "Sign Language" 

There are many other ways in which our sport is changing and growing.  We recently hosted for the first time a Club President’s Summit in Colorado Springs and it was very well received.  I see us hosting many more conferences and workshops that will bring together club and volunteer leaders from the local level.  This deeper collaboration gives these people the opportunity to share ideas and learn best practices from each other, as well as from our staff and more experienced national-level volunteers.

We still have a long way to go, but our outreach membership is the fastest growing segment of our membership population.  We are also seeing a significant increase in diversity initiatives at the Zone level.  And the USA Swimming Select Diversity Camp is recognized as a best practice by the USOC and other NGBs.

Since the inception of the Facilities Development Department in 2004, we have been involved in the design and programming of 113 new aquatic facilities.  Currently, the Facilities Development Department is consulting with 69 projects that are in various stages of planning and design.  In 2014, we helped to open 8 new aquatic facilities.

The Facilities Development Department was created as part of the bold leap we undertook in 2002, when the House of Delegates approved our proposal to double the dues over a twelve year period of time.  This initiative generated more than $50M dollars that has been reinvested in grassroots programs and services.  The core philosophy that remains intact today is our belief that the swim club is the foundation of our sport; and the best way for us to support our athletes and grow the sport is to support our club system.  USA Swimming’s Club Development Division is the heart and soul of this support system.

We are always looking for effective ways to establish good international relationships.  In June, we hosted a FINA Officials Seminar in Miami for 110 officials from 63 different countries.  It was a great opportunity for USA Swimming to shine and build new friendships at the international level.

We have brought the management of our insurance programs in-house, and our Risk Manager, George Ward has been instrumental in helping with the current efforts to bring our captive insurance company onshore.  USSIC will soon be domiciled in Washington DC and we are assuming much greater responsibility with all aspects of our risk management and insurance programs. George has also been able to increase the coverages for our member clubs, while simultaneously negotiating insurance premium savings for USA Swimming..

For almost a decade now, we have talked about having an in-house General Counsel.  Following our most recent study of legal expenses, the USA Swimming Board of Directors has determined that the time has come to have a full-time General Counsel on staff.  I anticipate filling this position by the start of the New Year.

Our digital efforts continue.  Our Deck Pass app now has close to 210,000 online users.  It has become an incredibly popular tool for our athletes and coaches.

We are webcasting more events, and we are looking to broaden our content offerings. Right here in Jacksonville this past Thursday at the start of the OIOC meeting we conducted a special webcast event in which we announced the Time Standards for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.  We are also webcasting numerous seminars for coaches and club leaders and will continue to expand these educational offerings in the future.

USA Swimming’s Safe Sport program has recently undergone an independent review by Victor Vieth, a national expert on the subject of sexual abuse and prevention.  Among the many recommendations in his report is that USA Swimming should establish a means for providing more support to victims of sexual abuse.

In 2015, USA Swimming will launch SwimAssist, which will be a resource program that will provide professional counseling and support services for members who have been the victims of sexual abuse.  Susan Woessner, our Safe Sport Director will manage this program.

We have also just hired a Safe Sport Educational Specialist, who will solely focus on expanding our educational efforts to raise awareness to reduce the risks of sexual abuse.

As we look farther into the future, USA Swimming will continue to seek opportunities to take additional strategic leaps forward.

In fact, our next venture is already underway as we are working on the production of a documentary film about the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.  If you have seen any of the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary films, then you will have a good picture of what we have in mind.

This project is important because we are creating original programming that can expand our media content beyond our televised events. The marketplace for sports documentaries and bio-pics is rapidly expanding and there are many opportunities for USA Swimming in this evolving new space.

The working title for our project is “The Last Gold” and it refers to the last relay race of the 1976 Montreal Games when the American women came back to finally beat a doped-up East German team that had stormed through the first twelve events on the Olympic program and kept the American women from winning a single gold medal up to that point.

We plan to have the film ready for distribution in 2016, which will be the 40-year anniversary of those 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.

Recently I was invited by NBC and the USOC to participate with a working group to develop new strategies to increase television audiences and grow the participation for all Olympic sports.  The work is being done under the banner of “Project 32,” which acknowledges the contract that NBC recently signed with the IOC to be the U.S. host broadcaster for future Olympic Games through 2032.  This is just further evidence that the search for new content and original programming will become increasingly important in the future.

The year ahead is going to be filled with new challenges and opportunities, and we are ready.  There is always much excitement in the pre-Olympic year, and 2015 will be no different.

USA Swimming will send three separate teams to represent our country at next year’s major international competitions; the World Championships in Russia; the World University Games in Korea; and the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

These events will provide our country’s most elite swimmers with the opportunity to train and prepare for a single international competition. This is part of our quad plan that helps to ready our top athletes and coaches for the challenges that come with international competition.  The ultimate goal, of course, is to be ready for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

As this year’s convention comes to a close, so too does Bruce Stratton’s second term as USA Swimming President.  This is a bittersweet moment.  The relationship between the President and the Executive Director is a necessarily close one.  Bruce and I have spent a lot of time together.  We have traveled to events, and spent countless hours in meetings and in conversations that have dealt with nearly every aspect of USA Swimming business.

Needless to say, we have gotten to know each other very well. Perhaps most noteworthy of all, in the four years that we have worked together I cannot recall a single instance in which we were not working collaboratively to make decisions that were in the best interest of USA Swimming.

Bruce was also very involved in our strategic planning exercises, and he brought an extremely important perspective to those planning sessions.  He made our business plan better, and his involvement helped him to better explain the plan to board members and others.

Bruce Stratton’s time as our President will be remembered for many things.  Under Bruce’s leadership, extraordinary accomplishments were realized.  These include:

• USA Swimming’s membership topping 400,000;
• Team USA bringing home 31 medals from the London Olympic Games;
• Providing the leadership to bring USSIC onshore and reorganize USA Swimming’s insurance and risk management activities; and
• Providing the leadership to improve USA Swimming’s Safe Sport program as the model for all Olympic sports.

And so now we prepare to welcome a new USA Swimming President.  This is an exciting time, not only for the individual you select to help lead our NGB, but also for the senior staff team with whom the new President will work most closely.

There is always a fine line between the roles of our volunteer leadership and staff.  One of the hallmarks of USA Swimming’s ongoing success is that we have always respected these roles, i.e. that our volunteer leaders are focused on governance issues, policies and the general direction of the sport; while our staff leaders are responsible for the development and implementation of strategies, and management of the NGBs programs and services.

In addition to thanking Bruce Stratton for his service, and in readying the welcome mat for our new President, I want to thank the entire staff team back in Colorado Springs.  It is an extraordinary group of people, who share a passion for the sport and who work every day to provide the best service possible to our members and clubs.

I owe a very special thank you to the members of the senior staff team, with whom I work so closely.  To know these people, is to know the best in our business.

USA Swimming is completing another year of great accomplishments and successes; and there is much to look forward to in the years ahead.  I have enjoyed being here in Jacksonville this week, and I can’t wait to get back to work in service to our sport.

Thank you for your time this morning … and Go USA!

Shen Duo: A Look Into China’s Sprint Future With Her American Age Group Coach Ron Turner

Photo Courtesy: Ron Turner

 

Chinese swimmer Xinyi Chen broke a Jr world record in the 100m fly at the 2014 Asian Games, absolutely smashing her own previous Jr world record of 57.54 that she set at the Chinese trials in May with a time of 56.61.
Chen, 16, would have been ranked third overall for the 2013-2014 season with that time just behind Swedish star Sarah Sjostrom and Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen Gray.
During the 100m fly final, Chen was out quick splitting a 26.81 heading into that first wall. She turned first, but eventual second and third place finishers Ying Lu and Li Tao weren’t far behind.
On that last 50, Chen found another gear and split a 29.80 on the final 50 to touch the wall in first and become the 2014 Asian Games 100m fly champion. Nobody else in the field was even under 31 second coming home, showing how impressive Chen’s back-half speed was.
She’ll have some room left if she wants to target the Chinese national record which stands at 56.09 set by Liu Zige back in 2009. Most notably she’ll have to control her front end speed and be out a little quicker if she wants to start inching towards times like Zige’s.
The world record split for example had Dana Vollmer of the United States going out in a 26.39 and back in a 29.59. If Chen can manage to improve that first 50 to a 26-mid or 26-low there’s no doubt that she’ll be able to come in contact with those target times.

INCHEON, South Korea, September 23.  LAST night, China’s Shen Duo ascended to a new level within her country by winning Asian Games gold in the women’s 100-meter freestyle.  Her time might not have been her best, considering she lit up the Youth Olympics Games with a FINA World Junior Record time of 53.84, but the Asian Games are a lot different when it comes to the prestige the Chinese place on winning gold here.
What is lost in some of Shen’s back story, along with several other young up-and-coming Chinese swimmers, is that it was an American who actually coached them early on in their age group careers.  That’s right.  Blue Wave Swim Team head coach Ron Turner had spent time in China as the head coach of the Jiangsu Provincial Team in Nanjing training swimmers for the Chinese Nationals and World Championships, and he is responsible for discovering Shen, and fast-tracking her training to the Nanjing Sports Institute.

“While at one of the localized age group competitions, I watched a 13 year old Shen Duo compete, and although her technique and turns were far from ideal at the time, she had a phenomenal catch in the water,” Turner told Swimming World. “When I called her over after a race, the first thing I noticed was her very lanky frame, as well as big hands and feet. I brought her back to our training center where I put her with other swimmers, who at the time were much faster. Her training was very inconsistent, but I did see a few amazing efforts which definitely sold me on her ability to compete at the highest level. Over time, she adapted to a more race-pace approach to training, and at that next Nationals, swam pretty decent times.”

Turner has kept an eye on Shen since returning stateside a few years ago, and was definitely happy for his former swimmer after she claimed one of the most honored titles in China with her 100 free victory.

“Shen Duo and I have stayed in touch since I left China, and she is very happy training with the Chinese National Team,” Turner continued. “Competing at the highest level in China is much different than it is here in the States. Winning at Asian Games or Chinese Nationals is much more than a medal: it’s a cultural social status, one of honor and pride that has been symbolic of their country for years and years. Many younger swimmers here don’t remember our great swimmers from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

In China, they don’t forget!

I truly equate her fast swims to how we often see swimmers here going SO much faster at their High School championships (sometimes faster than at their club meets). It’s a peer pressure thing, and more about their role as a team contributor than as an individual medal winner. I definitely think she has matured both mentally and physically over the last few years, and I think we’re going to see some faster swims from her in the next few years.”

Medal Standings

Nation	G	S	B	Total
Japan	7	11	6	24
China	11	6	5	22
Singapore	0	1	2	3
South Korea	0	0	3	3
Kazakhstan	1	1	0	2
Hong Kong	0	0	2	2
Vietnam	0	0	1	1

Women’s 50 back

 Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch

China’s Fu Yuanhui, the world leader with a 27.51 from the Chinese Nationals, did what she had to do to win tonight in 27.66.  That’s all she needed as she was the only swimmer to clear 28 seconds tonight.
Yekaterina Rudenko won Kazakhstan’s first medal of the meet with a silver-medal winning 28.04, while Japan’s Miyuki Takemura snared bronze in 28.27. Rudenko jumped up to 11th in the world rankings with that swim.
South Korea’s Hanbyeol Park (28.32), China’s Cheng Haihua (28.37), Hong Kong’s Stephanie Au (28.67), Japan’s Sayaka Akase (29.18) and Uzbekistan’s Yulduz Kuchkarova (29.31) also competed tonight.

Men’s 50 free

 Photo Courtesy: Bestswimming

China’s Ning Zetao was unable to replicate his Games record of 21.94 from this morning, but he had enough in the tank to win the finale in 21.95.
Asian-record holder Shinri Shioura of Japan, meanwhile, took second in the event with a 22.11, while teammate Kenta Ito placed third in 22.16.
China’s Yu Hexin (22.37), South Korea’s Jungdoo Yang (22.60), Hong Kong’s Geoffrey Cheah (22.91), Taipei’s Kuo Chi Chang (22.93) and Hong Kong’s Jeremy Wong (23.11) rounded out the finale.

Women’s 400 IM

 Photo Courtesy: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

China’s Ye Shiwen made a run at her incredible world record of 4:28.43 through 300 meters, but could not replicate her unreal freestyle leg as she settled for a Games record time of 4:32.97 in the distance medley this evening for China’s third straight gold medal of the night.  The time beat Ye’s 2010 meet record of 4:33.79, but wasn’t even close to her top-ranked time of 4:30.84 from Chinese Nationals earlier this year.
Japan’s Sakiko Shimizu turned in a silver-winning time of 4:38.63, more than five seconds back of Ye’s impressive outing.  Meanwhile, Vietnam scored its first swimming medal of the meet with a 4:39.65 for bronze from Thi Anh Vien Nguyen.
South Korea’s Seoyeong Kim (4:42.92), Japan’s Miho Takahashi (4:43.61), China’s Zhou Min (4:44.49), South Korea’s Yoosun Nam (4:44.61) and Uzbekistan’s Ranokhon Amannova (4:48.99) picked up the rest of the finishes in the 400 IM.
Top Splits

Name	50	100	150	200	250	300	350	400
Ye	28.26	1:00.86	1:36.87	2:11.53	2:49.98	3:29.93	4:01.79	4:32.97
Shimizu	29.14	1:02.24	1:38.47	2:14.42	2:53.47	3:32.82	4:06.24	4:38.63
Nguyen	29.41	1:02.59	1:37.98	2:12.72	2:53.20	3:34.64	4:07.15	4:39.65

Men’s 200 breast

Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin had an ascendant day, moving from a top seed of 2:11 this morning before blasting the Games record tonight in a sizzling time of 2:07.67.  That swim crushed Kosuke Kitajima’s time of 2:09.97 from the 2002 edition of the event to jump into third in the world rankings.  Only Ross Murdoch (2:07.30) and Marco Koch (2:07.47) has been faster this year.
That’s an amazing night for Balandin considering his previous best international 200 breast finish was sixth in the event at the World Junior Championships, and his Kazakhstani record had been a 2:13.53 from last summer’s World Championships.
Japan’s Kazuki Kohinata (2:09.45) and Yasuhiro Koseki (2:09.48) closed out the rest of the podium with second and third-place finishes.  Koseki had been out fast in 1:02.11, but faded badly down the stretch as he was unable to duplicate his sixth-ranked 2:08.34 from the Japan Open.
China’s Mao Feilian (2:11.31), China’s Li Xiang (2:12.05), South Korea’s Kyuwoong Choi (2:12.53), Thailand’s Nuttapong Ketin (2:14.29) and Uzbekistan’s Vladislav Mustafin (2:14.97) finished fourth through eighth.
Top Splits

Name	50	100	150	200
Balandin	29.49	1:02.29	1:34.85	2:07.67
Kohinata	30.07	1:03.43	1:36.71	2:09.45
Koseki	29.02	1:02.11	1:35.46	2:09.48

Women’s 100 fly

China’s Chen Xinyi produced her country’s fourth gold medal of the night with a scorching Games record 56.61 tonight. That swim vaulted her to third in the world behind only Sarah Sjostrom (56.50) and Jeanette Ottesen (56.51).  Her time smashed the Games record of 57.76 set by Jiao Liuyang back at the 2010 event.
Chen’s time also stands as a World Junior Record, beating the 57.54 she set at Chinese Nationals earlier this year.
Her teammate Lu Ying turned in a silver-winning 58.45 with Singapore’s Li Tao placing third in 59.08.
Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi (59.21), South Korea’s Sehyeon An (59.22), Japan’s Miyu Nakano (59.48), Kazakhstan’s Elmira Aigaliyeva (1:00.87) and Hong Kong’s Kin Lok Chan (1:01.83) also put up times in the championship finale.
Top Splits

Name	50	100
Chen	26.81	56.61
Lu	26.93	58.45
Tao	27.37	59.08

Men’s 400 free

 Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch

Sun Yang rode the momentum of Chinese swimming tonight to a blistering time of 3:43.23 for the men’s middle-distance victory tonight following a hand injury earlier in the meet .  That time is now second in the world behind Tae Hwan Park’s 3:43.15 from the Pan Pacific Championships, and gave China a fifth gold this evening.
Sun had released a spate of television commercials talking trash  to Park heading into the meet, and has now finished ahead of his rival twice in a row in the 200 and 400 free.
Japan’s Kosuke Hagino earned his fifth medal of the meet, and first silver with a 3:44.48.  He already won a trio of golds and a bronze in the first two nights, and added a second-place silver tonight. His time was a bit slower than his fifth-ranked 3:43.90 from the Japanese Nationals, but was still enough to top Park.  Park, meanwhile, finished a distant third in 3:48.33 as he could not come close to his top-ranked effort from Pan Pacs.
China’s Hao Yun (3:50.38), Japan’s Kohei Yamamoto (3:51.09), Singapore’s Kai Quan Yeo (3:55.39), Malaysia’s Kevin Yeap (3:55.52) and Malaysia’s Vernon Lee (3:57.29) also did battle in the finale.
Top Splits

Name	50	100	150	200	250	300	350	400
Sun	25.86	53.61	1:22.65	1:51.86	2:20.92	2:49.26	3:16.79	3:43.23
Hagino	25.29	53.38	1:22.78	1:52.03	2:21.46	2:50.15	3:17.97	3:44.48
Park	25.90	53.94	1:22.88	1:52.05	2:21.34	2:50.46	3:19.94	3:48.33

Women’s 800 free relay

 

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ding Xu

China finished up a near gold-medal sweep tonight as Guo Junjun, Tang Yi, Cao Yue and Shen Duo raced their way to a win in 7:55.17.  That’s not nearly the fastest China has gone here at this meet, considering the nation set the Games record with a 7:51.81 at the 2010 edition in Guangzhou.  But, the time was still plenty fast enough to win this evening.
Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi, Yasuko Miaymoto, Yayoi Matsumoto and Aya Takano finished second in 7:58.43 with Hong Kong’s Camille Cheng, Stephanie Au, Hang Yu Sze and Siobhan Haughey earning bronze in 8:04.55.
South Korea (8:11.55), Singapore (8:12.09), Thailand (8:16.56), Taipei (8:23.77) and Macau (8:48.53) closed out the third night of finals.
China’s Splits: 7:55.17

Name	50	100	150	200	Total
Guo	27.82	29.91	30.45	29.91	1:58.09
Tang	27.16	29.54	30.68	30.82	1:58.20
Cao	26.67	29.93	31.07	30.61	1:58.28
Shen	27.20	30.52	31.47	31.41	2:00.60

 

24 September 2014, 02:49am

Asian Games: Day Four Finals Live Recap

Photo Courtesy: Tobiuo Japan

INCHEON, South Korea, September 24. With swimmers getting this chance to keep their powder dry this morning due to sparse fields, tonight has the chance to be truly special at the Asian Games.  Finals start at 7 p.m. local time.  Hit refresh for the latest coverage.

LIVE RESULTS 

LIVE STREAM 

Scheduled Events

• Men’s 100 fly
• Women’s 200 free
• Men’s 100 breast
• Women’s 200 fly
• Men’s 400 IM
• Women’s 100 back
• Men’s 400 free relay

Medal Standings

Nation	G	S	B	Total
Japan	7	14	8	28
China	13	7	7	27
Singapore	1	1	2	4
Kazakhstan	2	1	0	3
South Korea	0	0	3	3
Hong Kong	0	0	2	2
Vietnam	0	0	1	1

Men’s 100 fly

 Photo Courtesy: Mike Comer/ProSwimVisuals.com

Singapore’s Joseph Schooling lit up the pool to start the night with a 51.76.  That performance cleared the previous meet record of 51.83 set by China’s Zhou Jiawei back in 2010, and nearly trumped Schooling’s Singapore record of 51.69 from the Commonwealth Games.  That should definitely get the attention of his fellow Texas Longhorns back in the U.S.  It’s also Singapore’s first gold medal at the Asian Games since 1982 when Ang Peng Siong won the 100 free.
China’s Li Zhuhao finished close behind with a second-place 51.91 to move to 17th in the world rankings, while Japan’s Hirofumi Ikebata took home bronze in 52.08.
Japan’s Takuro Fujii (52.09), China’s Zhang Qibin (52.77), South Korea’s Gyucheol Chang (53.17), Indonesia’s Glenn Sutanto (53.79) and Hong Kong’s Geoffrey Cheah (53.86) also put up times in the finale.

And with the tally currently at 1G, 2S, 2B, Singapore is having its most successful Asian Games in swimming since 1978

Top Splits:

Name	50	100
Schooling	24.17	51.76
Li	24.63	51.91
Ikebata	24.15	52.08

Women’s 200 free

 Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ding Xu

Although the likes of Kosuke Hagino, Sun Yang and Tae Hwan Park have earned the lion’s share of the top billing this week, China’s Shen Duo is quietly turning in an MVP effort on the women’s side of the equation.  With a 1:57.66 in the 200-meter freestyle finale, Shen picked up her fourth gold medal of the meet.  She’s already won the women’s 100 free and been part of China’s victories in both the women’s 400 free and 800 free relays, and she’s likely going to win the 50 free as well for a fifth gold when all is said and done.
Swimming World had an exclusive conversation with her age group coach Ron Turner earlier this week to get some insight on the swimmer who will undoubtedly vault to legendary status within Chinese swimming with that fifth gold .
Shen has actually been much faster this year with an eighth-ranked 1:56.12 at the Youth Olympics, where she also ran off multiple gold medals as well.  She just didn’t need that level of speed tonight to win.
Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi took second in 1:59.13 with China’s Tang Yi placing third in 1:59.34.  Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey just missed the podium with a fourth-place 1:59.66.
Japan’s Yasuko Miyamoto (2:00.39), Thailand’s Natthanan Junkrajang (2:02.05), Hong Kong’s Camille Cheng (2:02.06) and South Korea’s Junghye Kim (2:03.54) turned in the rest of the championship finale finishes.
Top Splits:

Name	50	100	150	200
Shen	27.13	56.62	1:27.56	1:57.66
Igarashi	27.86	58.12	1:29.00	1:59.13
Tang	27.71	57.62	1:28.44	1:59.34

Men’s 100 breast

In what has been a breakout meet thus far, Dmitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan won his second breaststroke gold medal of the meet.  After already dropping six seconds off his national record in the 200 breast down to the 2:07 range to stun the crowd, Balandin was at it again in the 100 as he took down the Games record as well as the Kazakhstani mark.
Balandin raced his way to victory in 59.92 tonight, the first sub-1:00 time in Games history breaking the record of 1:00.38 set by Ryo Tateishi at the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China.  That swim also downed Vlad Polyakov’s national mark of 1:00.65 from 2009 as Balandin continues to make his mark. Balandin now stands 12th in the world this year.
Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki, who posted a seventh-ranked 59.62 at the Pan Pacific Championships, could not replicate that speed with a silver-winning 1:00.23, while China’s Li Xiang finished third in 1:00.91.
Japan’s Naoya Tomita (1:01.25), China’s Mao Feilian (1:01.34), South Korea’s Kyuwoong Choi (1:01.60), Uzbekistan’s Vladislav Mustafin (1:02.24) and South Korea’s Janghun Ju (1:02.44) closed out the rest of the heat.
Top Splits:

Name	50	100
Balandin	28.69	59.92
Koseki	28.57	1:00.23
Li	29.06	1:00.91

Women’s 200 fly

 

Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY

China’s Jiao Liuyang battled Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi until the end of the women’s 200-meter fly before taking the title, 2:07.56 to 2:08.04, with a final surge to win.  That swim came up just short of Jiao’s season best of 2:07.28 from Chinese Nationals, while Hoshi could not come close to her second-ranked 2:05.98 from Japanese Nationals. That’s Jiao’s second straight win in the event, having set the Games record in 2010 with a 2:05.79.
Japan’s Miyu Nakano chased down bronze in the finale with a time of 2:09.18, while world-record holder Liu Zige missed the podium with a fourth-place 2:10.01.
South Korea’s Sehyeon An (2:10.14), Singapore’s Ting Wen Quah (2:14.26), Thailand’s Patarawadee Kittiya (2:18.19) and Thailand’s Sutasinee Pankaew (2:18.96) also competed tonight.
Top Splits:

Name	50	100	150	200
Jiao	28.93	1:01.88	1:34.92	2:07.56
Hoshi	29.12	1:01.57	1:34.94	2:08.04
Nakano	29.11	1:02.05	1:35.56	2:09.18

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