Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Reid Carlson.
WOMEN’S 400 IM – FINALS
- Elizabeth Beisel, Bluefish, 4:33.55
- Maya Dirado, Stanford, 4:36.98
- Katie Ledecky, Nation’s Capitol, 4:37.93
Proving that her swims this morning were a mere rouse, Elizabeth Beisel surged to the victory in the 400 IM, registering the 4th-fastest time in the world this year. Beisel took the race out fast in the fly and back, but was still trailing Maya Dirado at the 200-meter-mark. Beisel made up the ground quickly in the breast and surged ahead of Dirado, where she pulled further away from Ledecky and Eastin.
2015-2016 LCM WOMEN 400 IM
HOSSZU
4.29.89
2 | HANNAH MILEY |
GBR | 4.33.40 | 04/12 |
3 | MIREIA BELMONTE |
ESP | 4.33.42 | 03/20 |
4 | AIMEE WILLMOTT |
GBR | 4.34.82 | 01/23 |
5 | SAKIKO SHIMIZU |
JPN | 4.35.04 | 02/20 |
While Beisel’s time catapults her to 4th in the world this year (though she was already sitting at 8th with her time from Canadian Olympic Trials about 5 weeks ago), Dirado’s is good for 13th-fastest and Ledecky’s 15th! Despite Ledecky’s amazing time, 400 IM-ers can remain calm knowing that she (probably) will not pursue swimming it in international competition (this year), due to the IM’s proximity to the 400 free at Trials and in the Olympics. However, more grueling schedules have been accomplished (cough, MP 2008).
Eastin, the top seed going into tonight’s final, placed 4th with a time of 4:40.77, a nearly-identical time to her morning swim.
And talking about Beisel, I’ve seen a few days ago she was only 23! 😆
10 years ago she made the US team for Pan Pacs at 13!
Nobody expects to see Hosszu beaten in Rio but if Beisel and DiRado save their full taper for the olympic games and are a little bit audacious then I think that anything is possible.
They must know that if they are within a body length of Hosszu at the half-race then I think that Hosszu is beaten.
Of course the most difficult thing is to be close to Hosszu after fly and back.
They must try. The gold will come only at this price. They must put pressure on her.