Videos of 200m back and 100m IM finals

Ryan wins Gold in 200m back and 100m IM

No World Records this time, but these events were swum less than 15 minutes apart. Great accomplishment. Tyler Clary won silver in the 200m back.

Ryan is swimming the 4 x 100m medley relay today, most likely the fly leg.

More later.

200m back prelims

Ryan is in Heat 6/7, Lane 5 for the 200m back prelims. Tyler Clary, Arkady Vyatchanin and Ryosuke Irie - Ryan's main competitors - are in Heat 7. Markus Rogan, another main competitor is in Heat 5. I hope Ryan can put up a good prelim time even with the competition in other heats.

Prelims start tonight at Midnight CST. The 200m back is the very first event.

Here are the swimmers for Heat 6:

1 KOPLEV Jonatan ISR - 1:57.78
2 SVOBODA Kvetoslav CZE - 1:53.99
3 LESTINGI Damiano ITA - 1:51.84
4 KAWECKI Radoslaw POL - 1:48.73
5 LOCHTE Ryan USA - 1:50.81
6 PINZON Omar Andres COL - 1:53.08
7 CHENG Feiyi CHN - 1:55.88
8 MOLINA Juan David COL - 1:58.27

Ryan places first in 100m IM semi finals - misses World Record by .05

Watch the race here: http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=6006cc84-7563-4bf0-b3f6-0b85386ae11b.html#2010+sc+worlds+lochtes+100m+im+semi

Universal Sports doesn't allow embedding, which is dumb because they'd get more hits if they did.

The final for the 100m IM is tomorrow, along with the prelims and finals for the 200m back and the 4 x 100m medley relay. Ryan said in an interview that he will be swimming three events on Sunday night. I guess this means he will be in the relay!

Ryan qualified first for the 100m IM semi-finals

He will be in Heat 2, Lane 4 for the semi-finals. Tyler Clary is in Heat 2, Lane 8. The World Record holder, Peter Mankoc is in Lane 3. Here is a list of swimmers and lane assignments for Heat 2. I love the 100m IM!

1 SUN Xiaolei CHN - 53.70
2 FUJII Takuro JPN - 53.12
3 MANKOC Peter SLO - 52.78
4 LOCHTE Ryan USA - 52.06
5 BOVELL III George TRI - 52.60
6 FESIKOV Sergey RUS - 53.03
7 TAPP John Jake CAN - 53.43
8 CLARY Scott USA - 53.94

100m IM prelims

The 100m IM, the event I am most looking forward to, is next. Prelims are tonight at Midnight CST and semi-finals are tomorrow morning.

Ryan is in Heat 2/11 in Lane 3. Tyler Clary is in Heat 3/11 in Lane 2. For some unknown reason both were entered without any times, and thus they are swimming in the early heats. This may be the first time Tyler has swum the 100 IM. Ryan swam it at the 2008 Short Course Worlds and used to hold the world record (Peter Mankoc beat it in December 2009).

Here are some videos of Ryan breaking the world record in the 100m IM in 2008. It's such a fast event and it's so rarely swum that I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.

Video and photos from the 200m IM

Ryan sets another World Record in the 200m IM!!!

1:50.08. Wow.

More later.

Day 3 - 200m IM

On Day 3 Ryan will swim the 200m IM, with prelims tonight starting at Midnight CST. The 200m IM is the 6th event on Day 3, so I would expect it would take place about 1.5 to 2 hours into the meet.

Ryan is in Heat 8/8, lane 4. The other swimmers in his heat, with the lane assignment to the left, are listed below:

1 TO Kenneth AUS 1:56.40
2 VERRASZTÓ Dávid HUN 1:54.90
3 JANUSAITIS Vytautas LTU 1:54.07
4 LOCHTE Ryan USA 1:50.42
5 CLARY Scott USA 1:53.49
6 NEVO Gal ISR 1:54.17
7 SJOEDIN Simon SWE 1:56.13
8 YABE Diogo BRA 1:57.84

Video of Ryan's WR 400m IM swim

From Universal Sports:

http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=2dc56d98-be05-48bc-a4f4-2d0e0f1c1b5e.html#watch+lochtes+world+record+swim

Ryan wins 400m IM and sets a new World Record!!

Ryan's time was 3:55.50. He smashed the WR by almost two seconds. Ous Mellouli won silver and Tyler Clary won bronze. More later.

4 x 200m free relay is coming up. Watch live here: http://www.everythingon.tv/channel/view/eurosport-4

Day 2 Prelims - Short Course Worlds

400 IM

Ryan is in heat 3/5, lane 4 for the prelims of the 400 IM. Here are the other swimmers in his heat, with lane assignments on the left:

1 ENDERICA SALGADO Esteban Jose ECU - 4:21.15
2 PINOTES Pedro Miguel ANG - 4:10.55
3 CARVALHO Diogo POR - 4:06.83
4 LOCHTE Ryan USA - 4:00.41
5 MELLOULI Oussama TUN - 4:02.99
6 LE CLOS Chad Guy Bertrand RSA - 4:08.00
7 STACCHIOTTI Raphael LUX - 4:14.79
8 BERRADA Morad MAR - 4:26.35

Other favorites of mine: Tyler Clary is in Heat 4/5, lane 5. Laszlo Cseh is in Heat 5/5, lane 4.

4 x 200m free relay

USA is in Heat 2/2, lane 4. The Russians are in the same heat, lane 5. I do not think Ryan will swim in the prelims but he will definitely swim in the finals. I believe the other swimmers will be Peter Vanderkay, Ricky Berens and David Walters. I do not know who will swim the prelims in Ryan's place.

Prelims start at Midnight CST. You can see real time results at the Omega Live Timing website: http://www.omegatiming.com/swimming/racearchives/index.htm

Livestream in English http://www.everythingon.tv/channel/view/eurosport-4

Photos from 200m free

from Daylife...

Watch video of Ryan's win in the 200m free

http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=2a4d39e9-2a16-45e2-922d-6bd32292413b.html#2010+sc+worlds+lochte+wins+200m+free

It's the entire race - thanks Universal Sports!

400 IM and 4 x 200 free relay prelims on Day 2

400 IM and 4 x 200 free relay prelims on Day 2, which starts at Midnight CST. More later plus photos from today's finals.

Ryan wins first gold medal in 200m free & sets American and Championship Record

1:41.08

Ryan won his first gold in today's 200m free. Here's what SwimmingWorld Magazine had to say about the race:

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/25937.asp

Men's 200 free finals
USA's Ryan Lochte called his shot during prelims with a meet-record time of 1:42.38. That swim wiped out the long-standing record of 1:43.28 set by Ian Thorpe in Hong Kong in 1999, and moved Lochte to third in the world this year behind Danila Izotov (1:41.84) and Yannick Agnel (1:41.96). Izotov made finals, but Agnel missed out with a surprising 10th-place 1:43.51. It also beat the ratified American record time of 1:42.78 set by Michael Phelps in East Meadow in 2006.

Lochte returned in the finale to post a blazing fast time of meet-record time of 1:41.08. That swim is the fastest by a citizen of the U.S., either ratified or un-ratified. His time beat the un-ratified top time by an American of 1:42.17 set by Peter Vanderkaay at the Duel in the Pool in Manchester last year. USA Swimming elected not to ratify times swum in a techsuit after implementing its own techsuit ban in Oct. 2009, even though the worldwide ban took place Jan. 2010.

Notably, his time far surpassed Izotov's previously top-ranked effort of 1:41.84 from the European Short Course Championships, and moved Lochte to fifth all time in the event with the fastest time in a textile. Previously, Thorpe owned the best textile time with a 1:41.10 from 2000.

Izotov raced to a strong second-place time of 1:41.70 to improve upon his season best effort from the European Short Course Championships, while Tunisia's Ous Mellouli checked in with a third-place 1:42.02. Russia's Nikita Lobintsev (1:42.03), Germany's Paul Biedermann (1:42.19), Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski (1:42.73), Australia's Tommaso D'Orsogna (1:42.96) and Cayman Island's Shaune Fraser (1:43.91) completed the finale.

USA has 3rd fastest time in 4 x 100m free relay prelims

In the 4 x 100m free relay prelims, the USA team of Garrett Weber Gale, Ricky Berens, David Walters and Nathan Adrian had a time of 3:08.06, which was third best. The teams qualifying for the finals are:

Russia - 3:07.78 (new CR)
Australia - 3:08.06
USA - 3:08.69
Brazil - 3:08.71
Italy - 3:09.85
France - 3:09.97
China - 3:12.63
Sweden - 3:12.77

Ryan will swim in the finals, possibly in place of Dave Walters who had the slowest time on the U.S. team by .04.

Lochte has fastest time in prelims of 200m Free in Championship Record time

1 LOCHTE Ryan USA - 1:42.38 CR
2 MELLOULI Oussama -1:42.41
3 LOBINTSEV Nikita RUS - 1:42.59
4 BIEDERMANN Paul GER - 1:42.73
5 FRASER Shaune CAY - 1:42.98
6 KORZENIOWSKI Pawel POL - 1:43.05
7 IZOTOV Danila RUS - 1:43.20
8 D'ORSOGNA Tommaso AUS - 1:43.25

Day 1 Prelims - FINA Short Course World Championships

If you are able to stay up late tonight, you can obtain live results at http://www.omegatiming.com/livetiming/index.htm. I do not know of a live stream video available in the United States.

The Day 1 prelims start at Midnight CST.

The 200m free is the first event and Ryan is in Heat 10/10, Lane 5.

Here are the swimmers in Heat 10 with lane assignments to the left:

1 CASTRO Rodrigo BRA 1979 1:46.20
2 KVALE Gard NOR 1984 1:45.10
3 AGNEL Yannick FRA 1992 1:43.18
4 MAGNINI Filippo ITA 1982 1:41.65
5 LOCHTE Ryan USA 1984 1:42.88
6 VANDERKAAY Peter USA 1984 1:44.20
7 MATHLOUTHI Ahmed TUN 1989 1:45.70
8 LE CLOS Chad Guy Bertrand RSA 1992 1:47.89

The 4 x 100m free relay is event 9. The U.S. is in Heat 3/3, Lane 4. I do not know if Ryan will swim prelims for this event. He will certainly swim the finals.

Here are the teams and lane assignments in Heat 3:

2 CHN China
3 VEN Venezuela
4 USA United States
5 SWE Sweden
6 KEN Kenya
7 ITA Italy

The finals start at 19:30 (7:30 pm) in Dubai. Because Dubai is GMT+4, the finals will be start tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. CST.

I'm ready for this meet to start.

Ryan to compete in 8 events at SC Worlds?

According to this Associated Press article in today's USA Today, iooks like Ryan may swim back in the 4 x 100 medley relay after all:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-12-14-3132201859_x.htm


Lochte aiming to match Phelps with 8 golds


By Andrew Dampf, AP Sports Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Having surpassed Michael Phelps as the top all-around swimmer this year, Ryan Lochte hopes to punctuate the fact with a Phelpsian performance this week.

Lochte wants to swim eight events over five days at the short-course world championships beginning on Wednesday. If he wins them all, he'll match the record eight golds Phelps won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"I think that's what he has in his mind," said U.S. men's head coach Jon Urbanchek, adding that the laid-back Lochte "is capable" of pulling off the feat.

His chances are a little easier in the absence of his top challenger in most events, Phelps.

"I wish he was here. I love racing against him but it's not my call, it's his call, and I'm sure he has a reason why," Lochte said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Lochte is listed to swim five individual events — the 100-, 200- and 400-meter individual medleys, plus the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke. He'll also take part in the 400 and 800 free relays. The only question in his program is whether he'll race the 400 medley relay.

"If they put me in it I'll do it, but as far as I know I'm not," Lochte said. "I wouldn't mind doing it all. I wouldn't mind more racing. But it's the coaches' call."

Urbanchek indicated that Lochte will likely get the nod for the medley relay after Aaron Peirsol pulled out of the competition, allowing Lochte to swim the backstroke leg.

"But we have to give others a chance to swim and see how they perform," Urbanchek said. "Picking for the last relay is not a problem, because they have all swum events by then and we know who is hot."

Lochte may be hot, but he'll also probably be exhausted come Sunday.

Phelps won his eight golds over nine days in Beijing, while this meet is condensed into just five days.

"It's a larger load," Urbanchek said. "He's going to have his hands full, because he's going to be challenged by Tyler (Clary) and some of the Europeans are very good, so it's not going to be a cakewalk."

American teammate Clary will go head to head with Lochte in four events, and Lochte also has to worry about Hungary's Laszlo Cseh in the IMs, Austria's Markus Rogan in the 200 back, and Germany's Paul Biedermann in the 200 free.

Cseh took silver behind Phelps in the 200 and 400 IMs in Beijing and Biedermann upset Phelps in the 200 free at last year's long-course worlds in Rome.

"Even though Michael isn't here, there is still a lot of good competition," said Lochte, who beat Phelps in the 200 IM and 200 back at the U.S. championships this summer, then won six golds to Phelps' five at the Pan Pacific Championships in August.

Those two performances prompted Phelps' longtime coach, Bob Bowman, to acknowledge that Lochte was "the best swimmer in the world this year — no question."

Recently ousted U.S. head coach Mark Schubert suggested that Phelps doesn't have enough confidence in his short-course technique.

"Although I think he's a great short-course swimmer, he doesn't consider himself to have good short-course (technique). Because although his underwater is good, it's most particularly good on the last turn," said Schubert, who is in Dubai as the honorary secretary of FINA's coaches commission.

"But short-course swimming is kind of like a gymnastics event, it's underwater, underwater, underwater, and I think when you watch Natalie (Coughlin) and Ryan you'll see that."
Still, Schubert is not ready to declare Lochte the sport's top athlete just yet, saying fans will have to wait for a showdown at the 2012 London Olympics.

"In my opinion, I don't think you can say (Lochte) is the premier male swimmer but he was certainly the swimmer of this past year," Schubert said. "But Mr. Phelps' performance in Beijing trumps all, so London will judge again."