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)
