Toyota Swimming Grand Prix update: Sandeno wins again! Coughlin breaks her own American and U.S. Open record in the 200-yard free and some guy named Phelps won his third event by almost 3 1/2 seconds.

Sandeno dominated the 400 IM SCY in a time of 4:09.74. Here is a quote I stole from Lane 9 News: "I was talking to Natalie this morning, and we were saying it's like you can't come here (to this pool) and not swim fast," Sandeno said. "It really is a fast pool, and I can't think of a meet where I've come here and not swum fast. This pool is just phenomenal."

You know, This Blogger has swam at Belmont [Plaza] and the pool certainly has charisma and a history but in my opinion, LMU and Santa Monica College trump Belmont and are faster pools.

Phelps won the 400 IM SCY in 3:39.61 with a 3 1/2 second lead. His goal for the meet was to best 3:40.

Phelps placed second in the 200 Breaststroke SCY, the first time Phelps has swam the 200 breast SCY in about three years time and he was happy with his time.

Jason Leezak beat Ian Crocker in the 50 Free SCY with what he believes was a lousy start in 19.49. Quote from Lane 9 News: "My start I didn't like tonight," Lezak said. "I had a much cleaner entry this morning, but I'm normally a long course swimmer, so (starts and turns) aren't the things I worry about too much. At a meet like this, it's practice.

Lane 9 News [Link]

Toyota Swimming Grand Prix: Natalie Coughlin wins the 100 free SCY in a fast 47.03

Quoting AP Sports News: Natalie Coughlin won the 100 free in 47.03 — the second-fastest time by an American in history. She set the American record of 47.00 four years ago.

"I definitely think I could go faster than that, I just don't have that many opportunities to race this event," she said.

I'm like that too, I have a great race and then I start thinking how I really could have done better if I had only, blah, blah, blah! In other words I just kill the accomplishment for myself.

Sigh, the human condition.

That be-bop, hipster, Olympian with the cool, daddio, gotee has two freestyle victories so far.

Michael Phelps won the 100 free in 42.43 beating butterfly rival Ian Crocker who swam a 42.88.

In the 500 free he led all the way finishing in 4:14.57 according to ABC News. [link]

Forbes had a couple of interesting quotes:

"I tried to go out as fast as I could, which still wasn't that fast," he said. "But I was pretty happy with the time. It's my best time."

Phelps tried to wiggle out of swimming the shorter race, but his coach Bob Bowman "reminded me I have 17 swims in Melbourne." [link]

From Sports Illustrated: "I get to see where we are and see what we need to tune up for worlds," he said after a light workout at the indoor pool. "I can't believe we're less than 60 days away to Melbourne. That's going to be a pretty big meet for all of us." [Link]

2007 Toyota Southern California Swimming Grand Prix

So Cal local girl, Kaitlin Sandeno, dominates the 100o SCY. Kaitlin went out stroke-for-stroke with Japanese Olympian, Sachiko Yamada; (Quasi-local girl too since Sachiko trains in OC with the Misson Viejo Nadadores), for the first 750 but beat her by a second. Her time was 9:37.06 versus Sachiko's time of 9:38.09.

It is really great seeing people come out of "retirement" and dominate their first race and she appears to appreciate it too: "I never thought I'd swim here again, and that made me sad," Sandeno said. "Some people think this is an old, dungeoney pool, but I like it. I'm really happy that all my family is still here. ... "

In the Photo above which I "deep linked" from Go-Swim, look at Kaitlin's catch and how symmetrical her stroke is. [Photo page link]

Meet results here: [link]