Laure Manaudou to face friend, Esther Baron in 50m Back

Esther Baron, will face her friend Laure Manaudou in the 50m back final. If Baron wins it, I reiterate that Laure has some swimming to do.

The mens division is looking pretty impressive, Camille La court clocked a French record in the 50m back in a time of 25.66. He is coached both Manaudou's former coach, Philippe Lucas. As abusive as Manaudou has accused him of being, he is producing fast swimmers. Of course do not forget Alain Bernard's 'time dilating, 50m time of 21.76. (See above photo) [Link] [French Eurosport Link] Results [Link]

The French mens divison are looking pretty good though I wonder if any of their distance swimmers can beat Kate Ziegler? The Pan Pacific invitational swimmers couldn't.

Imagine this lineup in the 50m free at Beijing: Ben Wildman Tobriner; Gary Hall or Cullen Jones, Alain Bernard, Roland Schoeman, Filippo Magnini, Ceasar Cielo.

A rerun of the Hayden/Magnini tie in the 100m free at 2007 World Championships

Look at the ferocity of this swim; you would think they were swimming just 50 meters.

FINA World Championship Day 13 - What I should have been talking about today

Bad day at work and no pool to jump into that was less than 10 minutes away. I am still rattled over what a bad day it was but I am OK now. Day 13 was a very seminal day for planetary swimming for ten world records have been broken so far and lots of lessons learned about the dark arts of American swimming.

Summary of Day 13: We had Magnini and Hayden tie in the 100 free. Phelps got his his fourth gold in the 200 IM in a time of 1.54.86. Katie Hoff proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is not a land dwelling animal by dominating her leg in the 4 x 200 free relay assisting in taking 0.73 off Germany's world record mark. Jessicah Schipper gold a gold medal in the 200m butterfly giving the host country, Australia, the same amount of gold medals that, er, Michael Phelps has? Australia better throw a party for those girls post World Championships as a way of saying thank you.

Here is a nice recap from Generation Q: [Link]

I predict this trifecta in the 100 meter free: Filippo Magnini, Jason Lezak, Roland Schoeman

UPDATE: Oh Man! I should have went with Magnini for the win, place, and show bet and you all would have had to bookmark me by now. ;-) Also I forgot about Hayden, duh!. From Eurosport: "... Italy's Filippo Magnini and Canada's Brent Hayden dead-heated for first place in the men's 100 metres freestyle final at the world championships. ... Australia's Eamon Sullivan grabbed the bronze medal in 48.47..." They awarded NO silver medal. How cheap is that? [Link]

Italy's, Flippo Magnini, swam the fastest 100 in the 4x100 relay and Jason Lezak looks inspired. These are my top three picks for tomorrow: Filippo Magnini, Jason Lezak, Roland Schoeman. If I am right, then you have to bookmark this page. ;-)