Fewer men managed to clock FINA-qualifying-caliber swims at Day 3 of German national championships, a day characterized by ups and downs for both the swimmers and their Head Coach, Henning Lambertz.
In an interview this morning, Lambertz expressed his disappointment about the men’s 100 freestyle heats, as no men were inside the qualification standard and, from his viewpoint, a 49.61 should have been possible. Paul Biedermann, the winner of the 100 freestyle in the evening’s finals in 49.24 said:”It isn’t a good time. With Steffen Deibler the race would have been faster. But I’m feeling fine in the water and I hope, the 200 free will be good.”
Deibler is absent from the meet while dealing with illness, but has already been pre-selected for the World Championships.
Lambertz indicated, however, that he is very satisfied overall with the 3 days’ worth of competition, with 12 women and 9 men making the pre-qualifying list (called “Long List”) so far.
German women, however, did come through with a lot of fast races. Annika Bruhn took the 100 free in 54,88 – a lifetime best and her first swim under 55 seconds. She said that this success will push her in tomorrow’s 200 free. Not far off the German record was Franziska Hentke in the 200 fly, who finished in 2:07.05 to put her into top 5 in the World so far.
The 100 breaststroke showed a battle between Vanessa Grimberg and Laura Simon – the winner of last night’s 50 breast. Grimberg touched first in 1:08.29, but fell short of the qualification cut. Simon, who is a student-athlete at the University of Virginia in the United States, nabbed the silver medal in 1:09.00.
The women’s 200 backstrokers showed a fast race with 3 swimmers inside the qualification time. Jenny Mensing touched for the win in 2:08.48, Lisa Graf 2nd in 2:10,37 and Sonnele Öztürk 3rd in 2:11.27. They now rank 5th, 14th and 15th, respectively, in the world.
Florida Gator Theresa Michalak won the 200 IM race in 2:13.06, although she indicated afterwards that was not very pleased with her times in prelims and final, but she is still happy to make the first two cuts on the way to Kazan.
Three women showed an exciting stroke-for-stroke battle in the 1500 in which Isabelle Härle was victorious in 16:06.82. The silver went to Sarah Köhler in 16:07.33 and Leonie Antonia Beck took the bronze in 16:07.70, all in the top five world ranking fashion.
In the men’s 800 free Florian Vogel clocked in 7:52.57 in front of Sören Meißner in 7:53.37 and Ruwen Straub in 7:56.26, signaling that Germany’s long distance swimmers are on a solid track. Vogel made it into world’s top five.
Disappointed with his 200IM race was swimmer Philipp Heintz, who said that he has been sick, but still had expectations of obtaining a qualifying time.
Backstroke star Christian Diener raced for the win in 1:58.62 but did not reach the necessary time for Kazan. Also not on the roster were the 200 fly winner Alexander Kunert (1:57.23) and 100 breaststroke gold medalist Christian Vom Lehn (1:00.27).
On the schedule for tomorrow, the last day of competition: 100 butterfly, 50 free, 200 free, 200 breast, 100 back.
Day 3 photo vault, courtesy Tino Henschel.
Theresa Michalak Courtesy: ©Tino Henschel
Jenny Mensing, Courtesy: ©Tino Henschel
Florigan Vogel, Courtesy: ©Tino Henschel
Florian Vogel, Courtesy: ©Tino Henschel
Florian VogelCourtesy: ©Tino Henschel
Courtesy: ©Tino Henschel
That’s what I don’t like about these tough qualifying standards (in many countries, not just Germany), when athletes miss the times, a coach or group of coaches sometimes have to make subjective decisions that can be unfair to other athletes. I always thought it was too tough to make the US Team, but now I appreciate the fact that the clock makes the decisios, not the coaches! I DO understand why the qualifying times are necessary in other countries, but I can’t help feeling bad for developing swimmers that will miss important experiences and other athletes who may just have a bad meet for one reason or another. Swimming is a tough sport!
Biedermann 1.45.60
I don’t understand how German qualification works. Do you have to meet the standard here and THEN also meet the standard in another meet? My understanding is that there are 4 or 5 other sanctioned meets for qualifying, but that the standard has to be met here first before you can reach it at one of the other meets to guarantee qualification. Does anyone understand this process?
Biedermann, S. Deibler and Koch are pre-qualified, thats why they dont have to qualify here and are not fully tapered.
All other swimmers have to swim a qualification time in prelims (slower) and a qualification time in finals (faster) at the german championships.
In addition to that all swimmers have to swim a qualification time in prelims and a qualification time in finals at one of the following meets later this year: Mare Nostrum (Canet/Barcelona/Monaco), Junior European Championships, German Age Group Championships, Golden Tour Nancy, German Open.
Only athletes that swim all those 4 qualification times are qualified for kazan. The qualification times you have to swim at those meets are slower than that at the german… Read more »
Wow, thanks for explaining that ThomasLurzFan! That’s the most rigorous qualification procedure I’ve heard about so far! In Brazil, as a comparison, they have 2 prelims/finals meets to qualify and only have to get the qualifying time once in either prelims OR finals. Australia’s qualifying time standards are the toughest I’ve seen so far, but in many events (especially the long distance races) they just need to swim top 8 to get to finals; I watched prelims and they were definitely conserving enerrgy for finals! I guess you have to be consistent and REALLY know how to pace yourself to make the German team!
Im not sure if i like this procedure, we will see the result at 2015 wc.
The problem in the last couple of years was that german swimmers didnt swim their best times at olympic games/world championships and our new head coach wants to improve that. These were probably the fastest german championships overall i remember, so i think that until now this system is working out.
I think its the right decision that biedermann, s. deibler and koch dont have to qualify, although they chose a completely different strategy to prepare. Biedermann was 1.45.60 today in 200 free, while koch was only at 2.09.7 at 200 breast today and said he only trained one week for this. Biedermanns… Read more »