Thanks to a unique format at German Nationals, where prelims races are separated from their finals sometimes by days, there was only one set of awards handed out on day 2. But there was a lot of good prelims action, including the first appearance by national swimming hero Paul Biedermann.
The gold medal was given to Isabelle Härle, who won the women’s 800 free in 8:34.83, which was roughly eight seconds off of the time she needed to qualify for Shanghai.
Prelims Action
Much more interest came out of the prelims swims. Paul Biedermann was 3rd in the prelims of the men’s 400 free in 3:52.56. It would be a huge disappointment if he doesn’t cut at least 6 seconds off of that time in finals (3:46.91 makes Shanghai). It appears as though he may be able to, as he really shut his swim down after about 150 yards, knowing that he would be comfortably into the final anyways. Earlier in the day, he cut things much closer in the prelims of the 100 free as the fifth qualifier in 49.74.
The young Deibler, Markus, was the top seed there in 48.97, which continues an amazing year for him. Also of interest, to American fans, USC sophomore Dimitri Colupaev was 6th in 49.91.
The top seed in the prelim of that race was Georgia junior Martin Grodzki in 3:52.29, which is already a career-best time by 9 seconds. That’s his second career-best swim in as many days, and just as he showed at NCAA’s, he’s got big potential amongst the world’s elite distance swimmers.
Helge Meeuw, apparently motivated by some scathing criticism from the Swim Brief’s Chris Desantis, stepped up and swam a big 53.76 in the men’s 100 back. That time ranks him 6th in the world this year, and though he has to confirm the result in finals, will easily get him to Shanghai.
The men’s 200 breaststroke featured some decent prelims marks from Marco Koch (2:12.80) and Christian Vom Lehn (2:12.84), but they’ll each need to clear about a second-and-a-half off of those times to earn invitations to Shanghai.
In the men’s 50 fly Steffen Deibler, (the elder of the Deibler brothers), turned in a blazing 23.46, which ranks him 5th in the world this year (and just .03 off of the German Record). He’ll need to go a 23.33 in finals to earn a spot in that race for the World Championships, though it’d be a shame if he missed out despite a top-5 time in the world. That swim bodes very well for him in the 100 fly, however.
Earlier in the day, another sprinter, National Record holder Hendrik Feldwehr, posted the 3rd-best time in the world in the 50 breaststroke in 27.34, which will be good enough for Shanghai if he can come close to repeating it in finals.
Also in the morning session, Britta Steffen took the top seed in the women’s 100 free in 54.48 (following her top seed in the 50 free on day 1). This time ranks her 13th in the world this year.
For full results, visit here and click “Tag 2” for day 2 results. Let us know if you can’t decipher the results, and we’ll help out!
Translations:
Freistil = Freestyle
Rucken = Backstroke
Brust = Breaststroke
Scmetterling = Butterfly
Lagen = IM
Frauen = Women
Männer = Men
Finale = Final
Vorlauf = Preliminary
Tag = Day
Abschmitt = Session
Startliste = Start List
Ergbenis = Results
Oh you’re probably right about the top25 from 10′.
Although I believe that most of the sub49 swimmers have already done so, by the end of the week we may see up to 2 more Germans under this mark. I think this year will have about 40 or more by the end, we may have one more Brazillian swimmer, one or more South Africans, a Chinese swimmer (like last year), Nathan Adrian + as much as 4 or more other Americans (at US nationals), 1 or 2 italians, just to name some.
IMO Biedermann’s swim at SCworlds is “only” worth about 3 45, at best, LC. That should safely qualify him for the finals, but will not get him… Read more »
Interestingly, David Rieder and Tom Willdridge both think that Biedermann’s focus in London will be the 200, indicating that he is working on his early speed somewhat.
http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/london-2012-500-days-out-breaking-down-day-1-of-the-mens-competition/
Remember the date June 2 as the day top25 100m male freestylers are all sub49s. I wish I had been keeping track last year so to actually be able to make comparison about the state of men’s sprint free. But its a good date to remember for next year.
As it stands, my general feeling is that the men are swimming generally faster than last year.
6 seconds is a lot to drop in a final. Like some other names like Lobintsev, I would not be hugely surprised to see Biedermann miss the cut in this event. After all, the target time is only about 0.5 a second slower than his textile best. Either way, I have a hard… Read more »
Whelp, we’ll find out soon enough as to what Biedermann is doing in this meet…based on his two prelims swims, he’s either that confident that he can coast through prelims, or he’s way off of his game. He showed in Dubai that he can still get it done in short course, but he now has to match that long course or nobody is to be impressed.
And as for when it was last season (though, 2012 will be a better comparison in terms of training cycles), it seems as though it couldn’t have been until at least August…there were only 31 who did it all year altogether! Then again, nobody had to taper until August last year (aside from the Aussies).