Zhang Lin of China, who won silver at the 2008 Olympics in the 400m free, just posted a personal best time of 1:45.83 in the 200m free at the Chinese nationals. Credit swimnews.com (article link above) for the information.
Zhang's time is the fastest time in the world in 2009, but is nevertheless nearly 3 seconds slower than the world record of 1:42.96 held by Michael Phelps. Park Taehwan of South Korea, the Olympic silver medalist in this event and Peter Vanderkaay, the bronze medalist, also have faster times of 1:44.85 and 1:45.14 respectively.
Zhang's time is also slower than Ryan Lochte's best time in the 200m free, which was 1:45.61 at the 2008 Olympic trials. In addition, Ryan swam a 1:44.28 in his leg of the 4 x 200m free relay in Beijing. The fastest time Ryan has posted in this event in 2009 was 1:48.17 at the Speedo South Spring Sectionals in March, good enough for a tie for 21st in the world.
I'd still like to see Ryan swim the 200m free as an individual event for the U.S. nationals (and hopefully Rome). I think he has the capability of swimming as fast in an individual race as he did in the relay - 1:44 or better. It will be interesting to see if Ryan swims this event at the Charlotte Ultraswim in May.
1 comment:
I am dying to see how they swim in Charlotte, i think nationals is going to be insane
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