The HardCoreSwim of the week this week goes to Grant House of the Cincinnati Marlins for his 400 IM swim at last week’s Showcase Classic in Clearwater Florida, with honorable mentions to Michael Andrew, Maxime Rooney, and Benjamin Ho.
This was the fastest week of 13-14 400 IM’ing in history. All four of those swimmers were under four minutes at the Showcase Classic (Andrew and House) and the Far Western Championships (Rooney and Ho). Here’s how their swims rank in the all-time history of the age group:
- Maxime Rooney, 3:57.18 – 4th best all-time
- Ben Ho, 3:57.77 – 8th best all-time
- Grant House, 3:58.78 – 11th best all-time
- Michael Andrew, 3:58.85 – 12th best all-time.
These were four fantastic swims, split across two head-to-head races, so how to separate the two? Given that this is the “hardcore” swim of the week, House gets the title because he had the fastest closing 100 freestyle split of the four. In that race in clearwater, he was more than three seconds behind Andrew turning into the last 100, but his 53.2 freestyle overtook his opponent gave him the win in this race by less than a tenth of a second.
Note that when Michael Phelps broke the National Age Group Record in this race in the year 2000, only three guys in the age group before him were ever under four minutes. We’ve seen five swimmers do it in 2013 alone.
Just more signs of the pending swimpocalypse.
Founded on the pool decks of Southern California, HARDCORESWIM examines and explores the ethos of the hardcore swimmer. HARDCORESWIM is an authentic and innovative designer, marketer and manufacturer of premium quality men’s and women’s swimsuits, Custom Team Swim Suits, training gear, clothing, accessories and related products. Our true, authentic, innovative, iconoclastic, and creative style differentiates us from the bland competitive swim industry and gives us reason to be. All made in the USA. Check us out at www.hardcoreswim.com or find us at www.facebook.com/hardcoreswim .
The hardcore swim shouldn’t be determined by the last 100 of the race, the hard core race should go to maxime rooney because he had the fastest time.. so simple. what if someone hald back for the last 100 just so they could receive this award?