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Snippets As We Sail Towards Shanghai

Jul 7, 2011  - Craig Lord

A round-up of news related to the 14th FINA World Championships, Shanghai, July 16-31.

China: the host nation of the world championships will boast a delegation of 165 in Shanghai across all five FINA disciplines, the Chinese Swimming Association has confirmed. "We will send 117 athletes [across all five disciplines] and 48 officials to take part in the Shanghai Worlds," said Li Hua, director of the Chinese Swimming Administrative Center. The swim team will be 52 strong and led by Liu Zige, Olympic 200m butterfly champion and the distance free challenger to watch, Australia-trained Sun Yang. Also in the hunt for gold are Zhao Jing on backstroke and Jiao Liuyang on butterfly, while the first Chinese man to win a world swimming title, Zhang Lin, 800m winner in world-record time at the shiny suit circus in Rome in 2009, will not defend his crown and will focus on the 200m and 4x200m free relay. The relays among women have two strong shots at gold - with Pang Jiaying, Zhu Qianwei and Liu Jing, back to defend the 4x200m crown and Chen Huijia and Li Zhesi back to defend the 4x100m medley crown - but here is what head swim coach Yao Zhengjie had to say: "The Shanghai Worlds is the biggest competition before the 2012 London Games, so it is a good chance to get the swimmers ready," said  coach of the swimming team. I hope we can find some young talent in the women's relay at the Shanghai Worlds. Although we won the women's 4X200m freestyle relay and 4X100m medley relay in last world championships in Rome 2009, we cannot guarantee a gold in Shanghai, as Australia and Canada both have claimed better results this year. We will try to win three to four gold medals in Shanghai. Sun will be expected to win one or two, hopefully in the men's 800m and 1,500m freestyles," said Yao. The 19-year-old Sun is sailing high in the world rankings this season over 400m, 800m and 1500m, plus 4x200m. Indeed, over the longer distances no-one has yet come close to his best pace.  "I desire the 400m freestyle more than the 800m and 1,500m. Because my toughest opponent, Park Tae-hwan [KOR], will be in that event," Sun said recently.

Japan: Quadruple Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) will race both the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the world championships when racing gets underway in the pool from July 24, the Japan Swimming Federation confirmed this week. Naoya Tomita, who beat Kitajima in the 200 at a domestic qualifying meet in April, will concentrate on the longer distance. Ryosuke Irie will race all three backstroke events, while Junya Koga, will defend the 100m crown and race the 50m backstroke in which he finished second to Britain's Liam Tancock last time round in 2009. Aya Terakawa will race all three backstroke events among women. The Japan federation has provided an added incentive to its squad: all world champions gain automatic entry to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Britain: Fran Halsall (GBR), silver medal winner over 100m free in the riot of Rome 2009, missed her mark on butterfly this season when she was pipped by fellow Smart Tracker talents Ellen Gandy and Jemma Lowe for the Shanghai places over 100m. Halsall, silver medal winner a fingernail behind world champion Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) in the 100m 'fly at European Championships last year in the midst of a week in which she became the first Brit to win five medals at one continental championship, was not a little miffed at the miss but is looking on the bright side of life. "It's good that I can focus on one thing but there are positives and negatives. I would have liked to have swum it before the Olympics but I didn't qualify," she said. "And now I'm really focused and driven for the freestyle and it's given me an extra bit of drive just to concentrate on the free and do well in it. Hopefully I'm going to get in there and swim really fast because it's a good event to be able to say ‘look, this is what I am doing, this is what I am all about'."

Australia: reporter Stathi Paxinos at Fairfax this week lamented the loss of Dolphin distance aces capable of sinking the world. In the wake of Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett, who dominated the world of 1500m free between 1992 and 2006, Australia, says Stathi is "heading into next year's London Olympics without a chance of winning a gold medal in the event for the first time in two decades". Perkins, nodding down the years to Murray Rose, John Konrads, Robert Windle and on to Steve Holland, could only agree. "There's no doubt that at the senior national level we're struggling," Perkins said. "While you have ups and downs in talent in any sporting field over time, there's no doubt that right at the moment we're pretty deep down where distance swimming is concerned. There's no doubt it's an end of an era. Australia has dominated men's distance swimming for 20 years and we'll come out of London without any success in distance swimming, which is really quite disappointing." Denis Cotterell, mentor to Hackett, told Paxinos that Australia could be "hard pressed to have a swimmer in the final of the 1500 at this month's world titles in Shanghai and next year's Olympics". Well, he should know: he is training Sun Yang, the Chinese challenger not only for the world crown but Hackett's 1500m world record, having come within a second of the 14:34.56 stunner from 2001 last year. Leigh Nugent, head coach to the Dolphins, said that Swimming Australia was now rebuilding the distance program at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Tanzania: Gouri Kotecha, Magdalena Moshi and Ammaar Ghadiyali will represent the East African nation under FINA's development programme in the race pool in Shanghai, while coach Ramadhan Namkoveka and manager Alex Moshi will make it a party of five. Tanzania Swimming Association (TSA) technical director Marcelino Ngalinoma told African media this week that he was optimistic about the performances of the three swimmers, who leave for China on Thursday July 14 and will be in Shanghai for some 18 days. For the most part, developing nations race the 50m dashes, which does little to exploit the excellent natural benefits to be had from populations that are born and live high and compete low in country's such as Tanzania. Where are the 1500m men, one wonders. In Rome 2009, the best man was a 36-year-old on 29.31sec over 50m freestyle. Clearly that had nothing to do with development of elite swimming. One thing for Therese Alshammar to be cracking out sizzlers in her 30s, quite another matter when it comes to a development programme that cannot find a youthful prospect to swim 400m freestyle. The issue stems well beyond Tanzania. Since 2009, FINA, having spotted the problem, has insisted on a cut off of 30 for team sending swimmers under the development programme. Still too high at that standard but it is a start and a stab against the trend for nations to send their 4th, 5th and even 10th best swimmer to such a meet because those who have greater claim on a place are not quite so well connected back home. Gender balance and age limit of 30 years have also been insisted by FINA for the team members going to Shanghai. Federation officials met in Dar es Salaam this week and four names were produced. One was cut under FINA criteria while the three travelling met FINA's level-two timing requirements, according to a spokesman. We look forward to a repeat performance in Shanghai.