Thursday, July 09, 2009

50-Free drama at Nationals: Cullen Jones and Garrett Weber-Gale tied at 21.55 - Will go head-to-head in a swim-off!


Cullen Jones/Garret Weber-Gale: Here we have two superheroes from that famous Beijing Olympic 4x100 relay swimming to see who gets to go to the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome.

Whoever wins, "it's ciao, baby, see me in Roma at Universal Sports!"

So, who do you root for?

It's like Superman versus Captain America, John Wayne versus Clint Eastwood or Shaft versus Philip Marlowe! Two national heroes who not only did Michael Phelps right in that 4x100 relay but did our country as well.

And then there is Nathan Adrian! From Swimming World:

[Nathan] Adrian claimed the A final heat with a time of 21.52, breaking through the 22 second barrier for the first time as his previous best stood at a 22.00 from prelims. The time moved him into the top 10 all time in the world.

"I just try to swim fast and get to the wall first," Adrian said. "To be honest, I was taking it a step at a time. Now, I am going to try to set goals for Rome at this point."

Meanwhile, SwimMAC Carolina's Cullen Jones and Longhorn's Garrett Weber-Gale tied for second with matching 21.55s. The finish set up a swim-off for the second spot for the World Championships team will occur on Saturday.

[Link]


The article has lots more drama with references to past swim-offs, and great swims by Cesar Cielo, who posted a time faster than both Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Frederick Bousquet, who was out-touched by Great Cesar Cielo.

(I almost spelled Great Ceasar's Ghost)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i thought Phelps would break 50 in the 100 fly and still believe he will at the World Championships.

As for those that speculated that he would drop out of the sprints, I would guess that naysayers haven't competed at the National level and don't truly appreciate the mental toughness of swimmers like Phelps. Phelps is 3 for 3 and is still not fully tapered.

When I swam in college against the likes of Brian Goodell and Steve Lundquist, those guys just never lost and most inexperienced swimmers don't appreciate or comprehend this because they haven't personally experienced this level of competition.

Tony Austin said...

I thought he was going tank! - I was wrong - you were right.

I have never, and will never experience what it is like to race at the championship level.

I saw Brian Goodell at teh TYR Swim Meet of Champions. He looks good.

TedBaker said...

Couple things. First, Anon is dead right about Phelps. He's a machine, utterly and absolutely relentless. A very good argument can be made that he's the best that ever was.

And Ceilo's swim! 21.14! Beats Bosquet on 21.38(?)! In the banana heat! Absolutely awesome!

Do people still refer to the "B" final as the banana heat?

In the "dark times", if someone did a team in the "B" final that would have won the "A", we'd find 'em afterwards and give 'em a banana. Don't know if anyone remembers but they ran "B" finals at the LA Games in '84. An American kid swam the fastest time of the meet for the Men's 400 Free in the "B" final. He'd won gold if he'd been in the final. I forget his name but, I can tell you, we laughed like heck - and he did too, to his great credit - when he did it.

Anonymous said...

It was Thomas Fahrner from Germany that won the consols in the 400. Same idea as my 10:04 post, although his time was best he wouldn't have won if her were in the finals. He was known as a swimmer that could swim well in front, but when the he was under pressure... He did get 3rd in the 200, buy got beat pretty soundly in the finals by the Albatross.

John Craig said...

It's a little different here, Cielo was in the B finals because he is a foreigner, not because he didn't swim fast enough in the heats. Bousquet, surprisingly, only qualified 9th so would have been in the consols anyway.

Mr. Baker, regarding your statement that "a very good argument can be made that [Phelps] is the best there ever was" -- I don't think anyone is arguing anymore.

The Screaming Viking! said...

great pic by the way. Alex Ross is studly... and cap is my hero. I will have to send a pic of my tat someday. :)

TedBaker said...

Thanks for the correction re: Thomas Farhner. I remember him finishing the race, looking at the clock, getting out of the water, shrugging his shoulders and laughing.

About the only thing I can think of that Phelps doesn't have relative to Spitz is total World Records. I read somewhere that Spitz set a total of 35, including relays, over his career and Phelps is sitting at 28. Of course, unless Phelps gets hit by a truck, he'll get those extra 7, probably well before 2012.

I tell my non-swimming friends that Michael Phelps is not the Tiger Woods of swimming, Tiger Woods is the Michael Phelps of golf.

TedBaker said...

It turns out I don't my a** from my elbow. Phelps has set 33 WR's and Spitz set 32, at least according to Craig Lord.

He (Phelps) is the greatest that has ever been.

Tony Austin said...

Craig Lord! 0_o


Slowly I turned, step-by-step....

Anonymous said...

i liked the picture for this post... wouldnt it be cool if they mad full body suits that looked like Captain America or Superman costumes? id love to see someone start off the blocks wearing Spiderman!