I am looking at the results of the 100-meter freestyle men's prelim and what a finish that race was!

[Update: It was a prelim race, I thought it was a final.]

Only .06-of-a-second separated the winner in the prelims, Nathan Adrian, from Ryan Lochte and only o.1-of-a-second separated, Lochte, from third place finisher, Matthew Targett.

Wow, it was a very exciting [Prelim] race.

Nathan went out in a 22.86 and came back the the slowest in a 25.24 to finish in a 48.10 but he had enough at the end and out touched, Lochte, who went out in a 23.41 but came back in a 24.75 finishing with a 48.16. Nice pacing, Ryan!

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Prelim Results: [Link]

Tomorrow is the Swim-off between Cullen Jones and [Garrett Weber Gale.]

Zimbio has a great photo gallery of nationals here: [Link]

Maly sends us news that Britta Steffen set a new WR in the 100-LCM Free

I had criticized Britta Steffen's comment regarding the suit she wore at German Nationals where she stated: "this material can destroy the sport of swimming." I countered with a comment that she only swam .42 seconds off her personal best and only .03 faster than the former WR held by Libby Trickett in the event.

Her world record of early last week was a 52.85 lowering the standard to a 52.82

Maly sent us news that Britta set another WR in the 100-meter-free in a time of 52.56: split 25.30- 27.26. Hence, the suit she wore, the Arena Hydroplane, may had reduce as much as .71 seconds off her personal best time in Beijing 53.12. (Read as possible and not definitive.)

From The Straits Times [Link]

I will say that this is a significant drop!

Dawn Fraiser went form a 1:02 to a 58.9 in her swimming career

Shane Gould went from a 59.9 to a 58.5

Kornelia Ender from East Germany during the 1970's droped her WR times by more than 3-seconds and her teammates dropped another second after that but the conditions are more than just suspicious.

However, with that said, the new suits are not dropping times that significantly.

If you look at Jenny Thompson's record in 1992 where the materials for suits were lycra and polyester, her WR time was a 54.48 Now moving forward to From Inge de Bruijin to Britta Steffen in 2006 the WR dropped from 53.80 to 53.30 or a full .50 seconds in a six six years.

When the suits appear in March 08, the times drop a total of .71 - I really don't think that a .71 drop is destroying the sport of swimming when you look at the girls who are setting these records.

Britta Stefen's WR in the 100 free and her suit comment soon thereafter!

Britta Steffen set a new WR in the 100-LCM free in a time of 52.85 at German Nationals. (Congratulations, Britta, the SCAQ Blog likes you. :-)

Soon thereafter she commented that the suit material her new Adidas Hydrofoil suit was made of would destroy the sport.

She had surpassed Libby Trickett's former WR by 3/100ths-of-a-second which is a really a small margin. Actually, it practically a tie.

I was recently beat during a 200-SCY freestyle relay that I was leading off in by SCAQ teammate, Dan Leonard, who beat me by 3-100ths-of-second as well.

I looked over at him like a bad boy as our hands were reaching for the wall and he beat me by only half-a-finger length. So over a 100-LCM race, Steffen, was half-a-finger-length faster than Tricket or simply just .42-seconds faster than her WR in Beijing before Trickett snatched it.

I don't see that sort of a time drop as a sure sign that the sport of swimming is going up in flames.

Since FINA is being so incompetent, Perhaps the athletes at large should just vote instead of the know-bests at FINA?

Let's have age-group swimmers, college swimmers, and here is a thought, let's have women swimmers vote too since not one woman had a say in the speedsuit votes in the first place. (Masters get to wear whatever we want. ;-P )

Reference to Britta's WR and comment, CBSsports.ca: [Link]

Maly sends us Alain Bernard's World Record in the 100 Free!

Maly so hooks us up! Uploading stuff to You Tube is not very fun yet she has been so generous with her time in doing so that I can't thank her enough. :-)

Michael Phelps owns the flipturn and the underwater aspects of any race he swims

Here is Phelps winning the 100 free at the "Duel in the Pool" meet. Not only does he win but he beats Eamon Sullivan and Cullen Jones. Note his position in the race when he gets to the wall then see where he is after the turn. He also looks up when sprinting.