Singapore’s Joseph Schooling competes in action at the 29th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) at the National Aquatics Centre in Kuala Lumpur. (Manan VATSYAYANA/AFP)
Joseph Schooling was among a field of Singapore swimmers who progressed into the finals of the SEA Games swimming competition after their heats on Wednesday morning.
Schooling clocked a time of 53.53s in the 100m butterfly to finish second overall out of 10 swimmers. It is the same event in which he won an Olympic gold medal in a record time of 50.39s at Rio 2016.
Singapore’s Dylan Koo also progressed into the final with a swim of 54.10s that placed him 4th overall at the National Aquatics Centre in Bukit Jalil.
In the women’s 100m freestyle, sisters Quah Jing Wen (57.08s) and Quah Ting Wen (57.99s) qualified in 2nd and 7th overall respectively.
Ting Wen also finished as the fastest qualifier in her 50m butterfly heats with a time of 27.48s, while compatriot Nicholle Toh finished 4th fastest in a time of 28.08s to book her spot in the evening’s finals session.
In the men’s 200m freestyle heats, Singapore’s Danny Yeo placed 3rd in a field of 12 competitors with a time of 1:52.00s, while Pang Sheng Jun clocked 1:53.39s to finish 6th overall to qualify for the final.
The evening’s finals session will be held at 7pm, local time on Wednesday at the National Aquatics Centre.
CNA
USA Swimming and the city of Indianapolis are excited to host the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships.
FINA welcomes the next generation of top athletes from over 176 countries to Indianapolis, a city with a long standing history of hosting elite competitions such as the 2004 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).
Over the next 6 days, approximately 800 athletes will compete for 46 medals in a newly renovated world class pool with over 21,000 spectators cheering them on. USA Swimming plans to run a technically flawless competition, provide visitors with world-class hospitality and expose the local community to a dynamic international swimming competition.
ZwemZa
Canada’s Taylor Ruck, left, and Penny Oleksiak both live near elite swimming facilities in Toronto’s east end. (CBC Sports)
Something unusual is going on in Toronto’s east end.
Three of the best young swimmers in the world have quietly made their homes in the same little area within the Beach neighbourhood.
Penny Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck and Rebecca Smith are all living within a towel’s throw of one another. In fact, the three teens are now carpooling together to their daily workouts.
Olympic swimmer, coach and commentator Byron MacDonald described swimming’s new power pocket as “probably the highest concentration of world-class 17 year olds in any sport in one small radius!”
How did this happen? Swimming is big in Canada, but it’s not hockey big. Swimming doesn’t have the long-established arrangement that allows parents to safely send their 16 year olds off to play major junior hockey in distant cities.
The truth is, it’s happening in swimming now because old swimmers stick together. It’s happening informally. And it seems to be working fine.
Proximity crucial
John Grootveld swam alongside MacDonald in his day and was also a national coach. He’s now the director of business development for the Canadian Sports Institute Ontario, which is located at the Pan Am Sports Centre in Toronto – a national centre for elite swimming.
Nearby the Pan Am pool, Grootveld worked with West Hill Collegiate to start a program supporting high performance athletes.
Swimmers like Ruck and Oleksiak don’t need academic help, but timetable accommodation and teaching support for swimmers who are away competing or training? Crucial. And Grootveld is not one to leave his work at the office. He and his family share their home with Taylor Ruck, whose parents live in Arizona.
High performance swim coach Ben Titley came to Grootveld earlier this summer to see if he could squeeze the six-foot, 17-year-old Ruck into his home alongside his wife and their six and four year olds. It must be pretty cool for the little kids, who suddenly have a towering Olympian at their breakfast table.
“Well obviously they love it…She’s been wonderful with the kids,” Grootveld said. “For Taylor, she’s still pretty young, and you know she’s here, away from family so it’s a big step for her. But I think at the end of the day she knew that this is the best fit.”
There’s a reason why swimmers particularly need to find “away housing” for minors. Swimmers don’t necessarily peak young, but their window of high performance can open early.
Youth movement
Young athletes in other sports just don’t have the quads to lead a pursuit cycling team, or row hard, whereas swimming involves factors beyond sheer muscle. So you can still be very young and very good.
Taylor Ruck’s story is not so different from Rebecca Smith’s, who has been living in the exact same corner of the Beach for a year now. Smith caught coach Ben Titley’s eye as a rising star in 2016. Rebecca’s mother, Sandy, saw the benefit of intense training and her suggestion was: “if we could find a family with some kids, you know, we’d be interested in that.”
Titley put the neighborhood word out. It wasn’t exactly “Elite Swimmer: free to a good home!”, but still, the offer was there. Ron Watson and his wife, both former University of Toronto swimmers, and their two kids rose to the occasion.
“It’s funny in Canada, you have this group of young girls, only 16, 17, 18 years old, and they are super elite athletes in the world, which is kind of a blip,” Watson said. “I don’t think any other country really has this type of talent at that age level.”
So now, we have Rebecca Smith living just six or seven doors down from the Oleksiaks. Smith’s move from Red Deer, Alta., has been smooth for everyone involved.
“We are not proxy parents. Rebecca doesn’t need that,” Watson said. “She is mature beyond her years and she doesn’t need that parenting role.”
Numbers could swell
Smith, Oleksiak and Ruck all live close to the Summerville pool and there are a lot of kids in different swim clubs in the area. “When word got out that Taylor Ruck was moving in, there was a buzz of excitement,” Grootveld recalled.
Local kids also got a thrill from seeing Oleksiak in person. “Ben Titley had Penny bring her medals to the pools one day so the kids got to see that, which was cool,” Watson said. “And that’s the pool Penny trained at when she was younger. The Beaches have a lot of different athletes so nobody is surprised by it. No neighbourhood kids hanging around for autographs. Although Andrew, [Watson’s 11-year-old hockey playing son] got Penny’s brother Jamie’s NHL autograph.”
If it wasn’t for their massive workout load, it sounds like a sweet life for the three girls. They all live in the Beaches and they can hang out together when they want. Rebecca has a car so she kind of chauffeurs them.
Still, for all the parents involved, it’s no small thing, bringing these swimmers into their lives. And they certainly aren’t in it for the money.
“If they’re getting access to the facility, the top coaches, all of that? We’re in for that,” Watson said. “I think it’s great what they’re doing for Canada. These girls have a chance at winning medals at the Olympics.”
Remarkable as it is to have this concentrated cluster of talent. If Grootveld gets his way, the numbers could swell.
“I have two other friends that we used to swim with also living in the Beach. They are sitting in a holding pattern. When the call comes in, we should be able to move on a couple more swimmers after that…I might run out of friends in the Beach…”
Swimming Australia’s John Bertrand, left, Jacco Verhaeren, Mark Anderson and Michael Scott in Perth.(Jordan Shields)
Australia last month produced its worst performance at a World Swimming Championships in 35 years but the sport’s chiefs on Tuesday remained positive about the future, saying the swim team’s focus is purely on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Australian Dolphins finished the International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships in Budapest in July with 10 medals, just one of which was gold, while long-time rivals from the United States (U.S.) swept the competition, winning 38 medals. China finished in equal third on the medal tally, also with 10 medals, three of which were gold
The tally marks Australia’s worst total medal tally at the event since 1994 and the worst result in terms of gold medals since 1982.
Australia’s dominance in swimming, which has produced more Olympic medals for the country than any other sport, has been in steady decline since the early 2000s to the point where World Championships have fallen by the wayside.
From 2001 to 2007, considered to be the peak of Australia’s swimming performance, the Dolphins averaged 21 total medals from four World Championships – a period that happened to coincide with Ian Thorpe’s glittering career. Since 2007, the average has dropped to 13.6 medals.
Additionally, 48 percent of the medals won by Australians at the World Championships from 2001 to 2007 were gold, a figure which has dropped to 23.5 percent since.
Despite the drop-off in podium finishes, John Bertrand, President of Swimming Australia, said he was not surprised by the performance in Budapest.
“It was as we expected actually,” Bertrand told Xinhua on Tuesday.
“In overview we had quite a few of our top athletes taking a year out of top level competition and we had a lot of rookies, about 40 per cent of the team was new to international competition at this level so overall we were not surprised to be where we finished.
“Our focus is on (the Olympic Games in) Tokyo in 2020 and from our perspective these World Championships were not a top priority.”
Yet, worryingly for the Australian Olympic Committee, and swimming in particular, the Dolphins’ performances in recent Olympics have mirrored the general decline in results over the past decade.
At three Olympic Games from 2000 to 2008, the Dolphins averaged 17.6 Olympic medals, six of which were gold on average.
At the two Summer Olympics since 2008, in London and Rio, Australia won a total of 20 medals in the pool, four of which were gold.
The poor performances have been a bitter pill to swallow for Australians who are accustomed to seeing their swimmers succeed against the world’s best, despite the nation’s relatively small population and limited funding.
The nature of Olympic performances have only served to further disenfranchise Australians from the sport with a number of swimmers considered to be favourites in their chosen discipline failing to live up to pre-meet expectations.
Compared to the stars of the pool at Australia’s peak, such as Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Libby Trickett, few of the modern generation have won the affections of the Australian public in the same way.
Bertrand, who assumed the Presidency of Swimming Australia in 2013, conceded that discrepancy in funding meant Australia would likely never again top the medal count at an international swimming meet but said that reality would not dissuade Swimming Australia.
“When (23-time Olympic gold medallist) Michael Phelps retired people thought it was an era over for the U.S. but more American swimmers have burst onto the scene to continue that dominance and I can’t see that changing,” Bertrand said in an interview with Xinhua.
“But what we saw in the total medal count in Budapest was that China, Russia and Australia were tied for second so that is promising for us.
“With a population of 27 million people, Australia is punching above its weight.”
Even if additional funding was forthcoming the extra money might only serve to fuel the public’s cynicism towards the team, especially if there isn’t an immediate turnaround in performance.
Instead, Swimming Australia and the wider sporting public have to confront the reality that the medal tallies of the late 1990s and early 2000s were outliers and recent results such as those in Budapest are indicative of swimming’s new world order.
Xinhua
Kosuke Hagino
Japan claimed two gold medals on the third night of swimming action at the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade.
Kosuke Hagino opened his country’s account for the evening by winning the men’s 200 metres individual medley in a Universiade record time of 1min 57.35sec at the Taiwan Sport University Arena.
He beat his fellow countryman Daiya Seto, who managed to come second in 1:58.73.
Joe Litchfield of Great Britain completed the top three with his time of 1:59.36.
Kanako Watanabe (japantimes)
Kanako Watanabe then doubled Japan’s gold tally for the night after finishing fastest in the women’s 100m breaststroke.
She posted a time of 1:06.85 which was good enough to beat compatriot Reona Aoki.
Aoki was forced to settle for silver in 1:07.36 with Andrea Cottrell of the United States completing the top three in 1:07.37.
It was a very tight finish at the top, with South Africa’s Tatjana Schenmaker finishing .07 out of the medals in 1:07.44 and American Miranda Tucker going 1:07.90 for fifth.
Australia’s Leiston “LJ” Pickett was 1:08.21, touching out Russian Mariia Temnikova (1:08.29) for 7th, and Korea’s Kim Hyejin wound up 8th in 1:09.24.
Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys claimed his second medal of Taipei 2017 during the session.
After finishing third in the men’s 100m backstroke yesterday, Rapsys touched the wall first in the men’s 200m freestyle in a time of 1:45.75.
Kacper Majchrzak of Poland took the silver medal in 1:46.19 while bronze went to Mikhail Vekovishchev of Russia in 1:46.48.
Italy’s Filippo Megli was three tenths out of another medal for Italy, and South Africa’s Myles Brown led in the second pack of finishers about a second back.
Mitch D’Arrigo used to be an Italian national, but now represents the United States. He took 6th in 1:47.85, a tenth back of Brown. Japanese star Kosuke Hagino faded to 7th in 1:48.13, perhaps a victim of his own brutal event schedule here in Taipei. France’s Jonathan Atsu rounded out the top 8 in 1:48.41.
Gregorio Paltrinieri
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri produced arguably the performance of the night to win the men’s 1,500m freestyle final.
He set a Universiade record of 14:47.75 to win gold after decimating the rest of the field.
Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine finished just under 10 seconds behind to win silver in 14:57.51.
Bronze went to Gergely Gyurta of Hungary in 15:01.11.
Haughey Siobhan Bernadette
Siobhan Bernadette Haughey of Hong Kong won her country’s first medal of Taipei 2017.
She was quickest in the women’s 100m freestyle final and managed to fend off two Russian swimmers to win in a time of 54.10.
Mariia Kameneva of Russia clinched the silver medal in 54.37 while her compatriot, Arina Openysheva, rounded out the podium in 54.89.
Mexican duo Adan Emidio Zuniga and Arantxa Chavez won gold in the mixed synchronised 3m springboard diving competition at the University of Taipei.
They were in a class of their own and collected an overall score of 302.01 to leave the rest of the field way behind.
Ukraine’s Stanislav Oliferchyk and Viktoriya Kesar secured the silver medal on 284.64 while Italians Laura Bilotta and Gabriele Auber rounded out the podium on 277.14.
Singapore’s Roanne Ho celebrates winning gold in the SEA Games 50m breaststroke final on Tuesday (Photo: Noor Farhan)
Singapore swimmer Roanne Ho successfully defended her SEA Games title on Tuesday (Aug 22), winning gold in the 50m breaststroke event at Bukit Jalil swimming complex.
The 24-year-old, who just last year suffered a collapsed lung and had to undergo shoulder surgery to treat a tear, clocked a time of 31.29s.
Jinq En Phee from Malaysia won silver, while Singapore’s Samantha Yeo came in third and took home the bronze. Yeo also set a new personal best timing.
“It’s definitely something that I really wanted to happen, but I wasn’t sure if it would because I was facing a lot of problems even post-surgery,” Ho told reporters after the event.
She added: “I kept getting roadblocks during my training. At some points, I didn’t think it would be possible at all. So to be here is almost like a miracle.”
CNA
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – JUNE 26: A general view during preliminaries on day 2 of the 2013 USA Swimming Phillips 66 National Championships and World Trials at the Indiana University Natatorium on June 26, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
The capital city of Indiana State in the North of the U.S. will be hosting the 6th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships that kicks-off tomorrow August 23 until August 28.
Around 630 young promising swimmers aged between 15-18 (women) 14-17 (men) will be taking part in this six-day top-notch competition, which has seen many of today’s big swimming stars make their debut in the sport.
93 National Federations will be represented in the iconic Indiana University Natatorium Swimming Pool on the campus of IUPUI, a venue with a long standing tradition in swimming.
Young talents to watch carefully at this edition of the Junior’s, among others, are:
Canada: Rebecca Smith / Taylor Ruck / Penny Oleksiak
China: Zhang Ruixuan
Hungary: Kristof Milak
Spain: Hugo Gonzalez
Japan: Rikako Ikee
USA: Emily Weiss/ Michael Andrew / Drew Kibler/ Regan Smith / Kelly Pash
Among the legends present in the stands and available to meet the fans will be: Missy Franklin, Simone Manuel, Madisyn Cox, Cullen Jones, and Jordan Wilimovsky.
Daily preliminaries will be at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time and semifinals and finals at 6 p.m. will be live streamed on FINA Youtube Channel (heats only, free of charge) and on FINAtv (heats + finals for subscribers).
Detailed schedule can be found here
The FINA World Junior Swimming Championships were first held in 2006 in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), in Monterrey (MEX) in 2008, in Lima (PER) in 2011, in Dubai (UAE) in 2013 and the last edition, two years ago, in 2015 was held in Singapore (SGP).
Budapest (HUN) will play host to this event in 2019.
Medals table, schedule and results will be available on ZwemZa as of tomorrow (August 23).
FINA Communication Department
Barbara Pozzbon (Treviso Today)
The three medallists from the women’s FINA Open Water Grand Prix race which took place in Lake Ohrid, Macedonia, on Saturday afternoon represented Italy.
Italy dominated the feminine competition as Barbara Pozzbon took gold in 5h15m51s, while Alice Franco touched home second in 5h16m24s. Martina Grinaldi closed the podium in a time of 5h22m20s, giving Italy its third medal of the event.
Alexandre Studzinski (SponsorMySwim.com)
In the men’s actions, Alexandre Studzinski of Germany was the fastest and claimed gold in 5h15m14s. Local swimmer Evgenij Pop Acev ranked second in 5h15m15s and Guillermo Bertola (ARG) pocketed the bronze medal in 5:15:16.
Medallists in Lake Ohrid (MKD):
Men
1. Alexandre Studzinski (GER) 5:15:14, 2. Evgenij Pop Acev (MKD) 5:15:15, 3. Guillermo Bertola (ARG) 5:15:16
Women
1. Barbara Pozzbon (ITA) 5:15:51, 2. Alice Franco (ITA) 5:16:24, 3. Martina Grinaldi (ITA) 5:22:20
After stopping in Santa Fe Coronda (ARG), Lac St Jean (CAN) and Lake Ohrid (MKD), the last race of the FINA Open Water Grand Prix 2017 circuit will be held in Capri-Napoli (ITA) on September 3.
OW Grand Prix 2017 Calendar
1. Santa Fe Coronda (ARG) – February 5
2. Lac St Jean (CAN) – July 29
3. Ohrid Lake (MKD) – August 19
4. Capri-Napoli (ITA) – September 3
FINA Communication Department
Briadam Herrera (Taipei 2017)
Russian diver Evgenii Kuznetsov, who won silver in the 2012 London Olympics’ 3m synchronized springboard, was favorite yesterday at the Taipei Universiade’s 1m springboard event. But, while the 27-year-old made it onto the podium, it was with only a bronze medal around his neck.
The Republic of Korea’s Kim Yeong-nam, 21, was the expectation-defying star. Competing as the fifth diver in the finals, he pulled off an inward 2 1/2 somersault pike on his first dive, scoring a strong 81.60 points. Following errors in his second dive, Kim recovered to secure the highest scores among all competitors in the fourth and fifth dives. His sixth dive sealed the deal, and Kim clenched his fist in victory.
Kim’s total score of 453.00 and the resulting gold medal in the event marked a dramatic ascent for the diver. In the semifinals, Kim slipped during his third dive and ended up sitting right there on the springboard. After rubbing his knee, which he had bumped when he slipped, Kim resumed his position and put in a performance that earned him a spot in the finals. His ultimate victory is also notable as it is South Korea’s first diving gold of this year’s Universiade.
Kim won silver in the 10m synchronized platform event at the previous Universiade in Gwangju. Then, in 2014 during the Asian Games in Incheon, Kim won a bronze in the 3m synchronized springboard and a silver in the 10m synchronized platform. Now, in Taiwan, he has finally clinched gold. After yesterday’s event, Kim embraced his coach as well as third-placed Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov had taken the spotlight with his preliminary round performance, scoring a total of 400.96 points in his six dives to become the only diver among the 31 competing to break the 400 mark. In his group, he and previous Universiade bronze medalist Briadam Herrera, from the U.S., moved on to the finals. But Kuznetsov, diving last out of the eight finalists, looked out of contention for the gold from the start, scoring only 71.30 in his first dive. Herrera took silver in the end, with 449.25 points, while Kuznetsov took bronze with 434.20.
Yesterday, the second day of diving events, also saw the finals of the women’s synchronized 10m platform. North Korea, having won two silver medals on the first day, enjoyed its first diving gold courtesy of Kim Kuk Hyang and Kim Un Hyang’s total score of 303.54 points. Australian duo Emily Meaney and Brittany O’Brien bagged silver with 297.84 points, while bronze went to the Russia’s Yulia Tikhomirova and Iuliia Timoshinina, who scored 263.07 points.
Taipei 2017
Joseph Schooling admitted that he was nervous before the 50m fly final, but was happy to have broken his Games record set in Singapore two years ago. (REUTERS)
It was a workday night, but no one could have told from the crowd at the National Aquatic Centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The spectators in the packed stands roared as the big screens showed the men’s 50m butterfly finalists waiting to make their entrance to the pool deck.
Among them was Singapore’s Joseph Schooling, who recently provoked the ire of Malaysians when he was misquoted as saying he would teach the SEA Games hosts “a thing or two” during the competition.
The 2016 Olympic 100m fly champion has since cleared the air upon his arrival at the Malaysian capital, and it was cheers, not jeers, that greeted him and the finalists last night.
The 22-year-old didn’t disappoint, shattering his own Games record of 23.49sec (set in 2015) with a time of 23.06, although it fell short of the national mark of 22.93 which he set at the Fina World Championships last month.
Indonesia’s Triady Fauzi Sidiq (24.01) and Vietnam’s Paul Le Nguyen (24.37) were second and third respectively. Schooling’s teammate Dylan Koo was sixth with a time of 24.61.
Asked about the crowd’s reception, Schooling said after his race: “I was expecting it to be positive; we are here to have a good meet and put on a good show and the crowd wants to see that.
“It’s a Monday night, it’s a working night and, for them to pack the stands and come out here and support all of us, that’s amazing.
“So I am very pleased with the reception and I think it will get better as the days go on.”
The University of Texas undergraduate was also pleased with how he had performed in his first race at the Games – he emerged from underwater about a body length ahead of the rest.
Schooling said: “My first swim was kind of nervy, I am glad to get that first swim under my belt, and happy with the result.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better start and, hopefully, I can get better throughout the meet.”
Schooling’s teammate Quah Zheng Wen had a first night to forget though.
The 20-year-old relinquished his men’s 50m backstroke title after clocking 25.39sec to finish second last night.
Indonesia’s I Gede Siman Sudartawa, who won this event in 2011, clinched the gold with a new Games record of 25.20, while Vietnam’s Le Nguyen was third with 25.82.
The 50m back event was not offered at the 2013 Games in Myanmar.
Quah said: “I was 0.2sec off my personal best so I am kind of disappointed with the result.
“It wasn’t what I wanted, but there are no guarantees in a 50m race.
“He (Siman) just happened to have a better swim tonight and I just have to put it behind me and look forward to the rest of my events.”
Quah added that it will not be difficult to shake off the loss and refocus on his pet event – the 200m butterfly – today.
He said: “In terms of racing, it (the 50m back) is just a touch-and-go kind of thing, there’s not much time to think about anything.
“The 200 fly tomorrow is a different race.
“It should be pretty easy to get off this (race) and get into (the groove for) the 200 fly.”
