Laszlo Cseh, Ous Mellouli and Luca Marin recent results

Some very fast times were achieved this past weekend at four big meets: British nationals, German nationals, Hungarian nationals and the Mediterranean Games. I'm mostly interested in the events Ryan may swim at nationals, but also am interested in particular swimmers he may compete against if he qualifies for Rome.

Here are the results for Laszlo Cseh at the Hungarian nationals and for Ous Mellouli and Luca Marin in the 400m IM at the Mediterranean Games. I'll write more later about the British and German nationals, which also had some great swims.

Hungarian nationals - Laszlo Cseh
Laci competed in the Hungarian nationals this past weekend, winning five events and placing 2nd in the 6th event. His winning events and times were:

200m free: 1:47.12 (Hungarian national record)
400m IM: 4:17.25
50m fly: 23.57
100m fly: 52.49
100m back: 53.88

Laci surprisingly finished 2nd in the 200m fly, one of his best events in which he won silver in Beijing, with a time of 1:56.93.

Laci is sponsored by Arena and swam in a modified X-Glide for the 200 free and an R-Evolution for the other events.

I'm really curious what events he will swim in Rome. I'm thinking he'll enter the same events he swam in Beijing: 400 IM, 200 IM and 200 fly, but will also enter the 100 back. His time of 53.88 was really good. I don't know his history with the 100 back, other than he's a really good backstroker...it's maybe his 2nd best stroke. It will be interesting to see what he decides to do.

Source: http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/6987

Mediterranean Games 400m IM - Ous Mellouli and Luca Marin
Ous Mellouli swam the fastest time in the world in 2009 in the 400m IM at the Mediterranean Games: 4:10.53, breaking the African record. Luca Marin was second with a time of 4:13.58, which was also very fast and only .48 slower than he swam it at the Italian nationals in March. The source article http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/21527.asp?q=Mediterranean%20Games:%20Tunisia%27s%20Ous%20Mellouli%20Checks%20In%20With%20African%20Recorddid not say what suits Mellouli and Marin were wearing.

Despite his incredible performance, I doubt that Mellouli will swim the 400m IM in Rome. It's the same day as the 1500m free, which is the event he won in Beijing. I don't think anybody is fit enough to swim both the 1500 free and the 400 IM on the same day. He'll have to pick one.

Marin has always been really good at the 400 IM and maybe 2009 is finally his year to break out. He's posted some very good times in this event. He may have been rested for the Italian nationals, but I doubt if he was rested for the Mediterranean Games (although I don't know enough about it to know for sure). Nevertheless, he will definitely be a person to watch for in this event along with Laci Cseh of course.

I'm getting really excited and anxious for U.S. nationals to start...just one week from today (July 7). The psych sheet should be available in the next day or so. I can't wait to see what events Ryan enters. He may ultimatey scratch the finals of one or two events, but I'm thinking (hoping) he'll swim the 100/200 back and 200/400 IM and at least the prelims for the 100/200 free.