The 2012 edition of the Junior Pan Pac Swimming Championships kicks off on Thursday in Hawaii, pitting some of the best 18 & unders from the four founding nationas (Japan, United States, Australia, Canada) in a trans-Pacific grudge match. This year, they will be joined by guests from New Zealand, Hong Kong, Mexico in the last big international meet of the summer.
This meet falls at an odd spot of the schedule, in an Olympic year where most of these swimmers have been through, two, three, or sometimes four taper meets already. What’s more, many will return straight to school, and so especially for the incoming college freshmen (there are quite a few who will be in finals in this meet), there can be other thoughts on their minds.
Still, there will be some incredible races in Honolulu. The women’s 200 breaststroke has been a target for a long time. The top four swimmers, all 18 & under, have been 2:26’s, and each hails from a different founding nation: Satori Hosokoshi from Japan, Kierra Smith from Canada, Taylor McKeown from Australia, and most recently Allie Szekely from the United States (though she’s seeded a few seconds slower).
Most recently, though, the men’s 200 breaststroke has gotten a whole lot more interesting. That’s because Japanese 18-year old Akihiro Yamaguchi swam a 2:07.8 at last week’s Japanese High School National Championships: a time that ranks him third in the world this year. It looks unlikely that he’ll be challenged, even with big names like Chase Kalisz in this field as well.
His development sets up for an incredibly exciting medley relay between the US and Japan. Check out the splits between the two countries:
| USA | Japan | |
| Back | Jack Conger 54.51 | Takeshi Kawamoto 55.00 |
| Breast | Will Licon 1:03.13 | Akihiro Yamaguchi 59.56 |
| Fly | Maclin Davis 53.14 | Kenta Hirai 53.15 |
| Free | Matt Ellis 49.44 | Toru Maruyama 50.62 |
| Total: 3:40.22 | Total: 3:38.33 |
That should be a great battle; the relay looked nearly dead-even before Yamaguchi’s swim last week, but now looks to favor the Japanese.
American Jack Conger, despite repeatedly demonstrating his versatility, is sticking close to his core in Hawaii. He’ll race the 100 and 200 backstrokes, plus the 50 and 100 freestyles.
This meet is slated to run through Sunday including an open water 10km swim in the beautiful Waimea Bay. The Bay, in the winter, has huge swells, but in the summer is relatively calm.
Once a swimmer was named to the meet representing their respective country, each swimmer can enter as many events as they want, and each country can enter as many athletes in a race as they want. The catch is with rules similar to those used in the Senior Pan Pacs – a country can have no more than 3 finalists of any kind, and no more than 2 in either the A or B final. That is to say, the US can advance 2 to the A-final and 1 to the B, or 1 to the A-Final and 2 to the B, but no more than that.
Team scores will also be kept with points awarded 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 in individual and doubles for relays. The highest scoring country at the end of the meet will receive a trophy.
Friday Night Finals – I think NBC took over the live feed.
They seem to be having problems with everything electronic – timing device, live feed. However Team USA swimmers came through with some awesome times in the 100 free and 400 i.m. Got shut out of the medals in breaststroke.
the japanese dept is growing. The only problem they have is in long distance like the 800 meters and 1500 meters.akihiro yamaguchi is insane in the breaststroke and he,s just 18. They won 11 medals in london although none was gold, it shows that their dept is slowly rising. The young australian women sprinters are also back. Australia didn,t do too well in london but they,ll be back in london. I dont know about france though, outside yannel agnick and camille muffat there isn,t much going on. China only has sun yang, ye shiwen, jiao liuyang at the moment.
the japanese dept is growing. The only problem they have is in long distance like the 800 meters and 1500 meters.akihiro yamaguchi is insane in the breaststroke.
Wow – It’s been a long summer for these kids – and they are killing it. So many great swims – Leah Smith going under 2 min for the first time with a 1:58 stands out. We had 2 girls at the Jr Pan Pacs at 1:58. Seems fast to me . Wasn’t that the American record not all that long ago? Or am I mistaken.
And Damn – 1:48.4 Meet Record for Younquist in 2010 – Wow.
Yes the meet record by Clay Youngquist in 2010 is a great one. I thought he would be the next best american in the race very quickly but since these junior pan pacs he isn’t in the headlines. I don’t know why but it seems the college training isn’t efficient for everyone. 1.48.44 in 2010. He should be under 1.46 now.
It is that kind of observation that makes me doubt how much you really know about swimming
I’m impressed by the overall level of japan swimming in the juniors. They are on paper very fast in almost every race. We’ll see the results in the water.
I’m impressed by Australia to build so many young fast sprinters on the women’s side.
I’m impressed by the crazy schedule of Becca Mann. I hope she will made the good choices. She must forget the 200 fly to focus on the 800 free. The 2 events are on day 1. She can swim very fast in the 800 free and must answer to Katie Ledecky. The rivalry will be great in the next years.
I hope Allie Szekely will not be tired after the junior nationals of… Read more »
With meet ending on 08/27 and many kids starting college 08/28, when do they get any time off?
Many of the kids already started classes. college and hs. As early as 8/13 for some of them (i.e UGA kids)
Actually the last pool races are on Sunday. The 10K is on Monday. Some swimmers don’t start school until after Labor Day and some who are going on to college – there are some schools that don’t start until the last week of September!
Some big name US swimmers missing: Ryan Murphy, Reed Malone, Emily Cameron, Kristen Vredeveld.
I don’t think either girl qualified.
I think Ryan Murphy isn’t eligible to swim at this meet because he was at the pan am games last year. Perhaps Braden will confirm that.
coorrect on Murphy if he swam Pan Ams. Cameron didn’t make the team (bad Trials where they picked the team). Did the others qualify from Trials …don’t know. They could have turned it down.
A pan am games swimmer is allowed to swim junior pan pacs. can’t go if made pan pac team, worlds, olympics (charter nations…gets complicated for others) or commonwealth games.
You’re right. A swimmer who has made the pan am games is eligible to swim at the junior pan pacs so Ryan Murphy and Gillian Ryan could have been there.
I know that Ryan Murphy was in fact ineligibile for this meet, due to his participation at Pan Am Games. It may not be a Jr Pan Pac meet rule, but it is a rule implemented by USA Swimming. He would have competed if he had been invited.
Meet starts on Thursday, August 23.
Live Broadcast at http://www.ihigh.com/usaswimming/broadcast_238894.html?silverlight=1
Tough for me to watch this meet live. The time difference between France and Hawaii is 12 hours. Finals will be at 5 PM in Hawaii, it means 5 AM during the night in France. I like swimming but it’s too late. I hope the races will be archived.