Chinese Nationals, Acropolis Open

Plus, a Katie Ledecky Elimination Set from Greg Meehan.

Author

SWIM NERD
May 08, 2023

Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd Newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming. This week...

  • 🌎 Fast Swims Around the World

  • 📰 Swimming Headlines

  • 📜 Set of the Week

  • 🤡 Swimming Meme of the Week

This Week in Swimming is brought to you by...

Swim Bridges are commercial quality kick-out sticks designed to efficiently improve underwater swimming performance. Swim Bridge's all foam design is safe, takes seconds to attach, and has the ability to store on top of your lane lines between uses. Discipline and feedback off the walls has never been simpler - save 12% using the code "HIGHSTANDARDS"

🏊‍♀️FAST SWIMS AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

The big meet this week was China's National Champs where they swam exceptionally fast.

Chinese Nationals

Biggest story here was the reemergence of 18-year-old Pan Zhanle. Because China tends to be more insular than other sporting countries, it's easy to forget this guy took 4th in the 100 at 2022 long course Worlds and 6th at short course Worlds in 2022. He's made his way back into the swimming world's consciousness after some stellar long sprints here.

First, he popped a 47.22 100 Free for an Asian record and the fastest time in the year thus far, thanks to the fastest back half this side of Popovici:

He followed that up with another world-leader, a 1:44.65 200 free, splitting 24.56/26.73 (51.29)/27.30/26.06 for another outstanding back half effort. Bookending those distance-wise, he won the 400 free in 3:46.40 and took second in the 50 in 22.08. That's some range!

Of course, he wasn't the only impressive swimmer at the meet:

  • Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun took blowtorches to the Asian men's sprint breaststroke records, the former with a 57.93 100, the latter with a 26.61 50. Qin also popped a 26.72 50 and 2:07.55 in the other two breast events, plus a 1:57.79 200 IM.

  • In that 2IM, Olympic Champ Wang Shun went 1:55.55 for his fastest swim in the race since his gold medal performance in Tokyo.

  • Li Bingjie tied her Asian record with a 4:01.08 400 free, and also took the 200 free (1:55.62), 800 free (8:20.34), and 1500 free (15:51.21).

  • Xu Jiayu brought home a backstroke sweep with outstanding times of 24.54/52.47/1:56.33. He also led off his team's 400 medley relay with an even faster 52.26.

  • Some impressive times in the women's backstroke events as well - Wang Xueer dropped half a second for a 58.99 win in the 100 with Wan Letian and Peng Xuwei just behind in 59.19 and 59.32, while Peng earlier hit a 2:07.11 for a PR and win in the 200.

  • Another week, another fantastic men's distance performance here as Fei Lewei doubled the 800/1500 in 7:49.97/14:46. The latter was a 13 second PR and sits behind only Sun Yang and super-suited Zhang Lin in Chinese history.

Acropolis Open

A varied group of elite swimmers hit Greece for the Acropolis Open. A couple South African men had some notable splashes. Matt Sates took the 200 fly in a big PR with a 1:56.34 (A World Champs A cut), while also winning the 200 free (1:48.40) and sweeping the IMs (1:58.77/4:17.71). Pieter Coetze had a fantastic Nationals and kept the momentum going with a 100 free win (49.24) and solid times winning his specialty backstroke races (24.67/52.96/1:57.29).

  • Canada's Kylie Masse likewise took a backstroke sweep. Her 27.97/59.40/2:10.64 times are solid for where she should be in her training cycle.

  • Both 200 breast meet records went down. Lithuania's Kotryna Teterekova went 2:25.42 for the women, while Sweden's Erik Persson hit 2:09.44 for the men. Teterekova swept the breasts with 30.88/1:07.34 in the 50 and 100.

  • Cyprus's Kalia Antoniou barely missed the meet records in the sprint frees with 25.24/55.08 wins.

Other Fast Swims

  • Some notable yards times out of high schoolers at the California Interscholastic Federation sectional meets as Teagan O'Dell went 24.08/51.45 back, 1:54.07 IM and 22.68 free, Rex Maurer went 20.13/43.28/1:33.54/4:12.70 frees (the latter a new high school national record), David Schmitt went 46.47 100 fly, and Colin Geer went 20.30 free, 46.69 fly, and 1:44.76 IM at the Southern Section Division I champs. Other fast swims came from Ava Deanda with 48.85/1:46.68 free and Daniel Li with a 52.43 100 breast at Southern Section DII, and Ethan Harrington who went 19.57/43.53 sprints at the Central Section meet.

  • Leah Shackley blasted a 2:08.65 in the 200 Backstroke - LCM. That makes the 16-year-old the 2nd fastest American this year. She's headed to NC State.

  • At Southeast Asian Champs, Zheng Wen Quah is making some history. He's now won 28 SEA Games gold medals and 5 consecutive in the 100 back with a 55.22 win. His most impressive swim in the Games thus far might have been a silver though, where he was touched out by Jonathan Tan 48.80-48.99 in the 100 free. Tan would go on to win the 50 free in 21.95. His prelims 21.91 gave him a Singaporean national record, and both times hit the 22.07 2024 Olympic qualifying time.

📰 SWIMMING HEADLINES

Alabama's a Mess: Looks like some drama brewing for the Crimson Tide. Associate Head Coach Ozzie Quevado left to coach SMU's women's team while 16-year assistant coach James Barber hit the road fairly mysteriously, and five 'Bama swimmers are now in the transfer portal since the end of the season. Not to mention sprint star Morgan Scott dropping off the team at midseason and Rhyan White leaving to train at NC State. Between this, the football team missing playoffs, the baseball coach gambling scandal, and the basketball team's handling of connections to a murder case, Alabama sports aren't in the best footing right now.

Frank Keefe, longtime Yale coach, 1984 Olympics assistant coach and 1988 Olympics head manager, passed away this week at 85 years old.

ASCA Hall of Fame coach Dudley Duncan is releasing a book tomorrow.

The Art of Swimming and the Game of Racing: Reflections of a USA Club Swimming Coach shares Duncan’s coaching history, breaks down the philosophy at the core of Quest Swimming, reflects on the coaching practices Duncan found most effective, and provides advice to coaches interested in owning their own club and pool.

This book is designed to provide coaches with a strong foundation to nourish their coaching careers and to share the idea of owning a pool property, a club and coaching with that level of ownership. Order here.

Carson Foster has signed with Mizuno and is forgoing his last two years of NCAA eligibility to go pro and focus on long course. Will be interesting to see what this does for his career - his trajectory as it is now looks very next-gen Laszlo Cseh-ish. That'd be a legacy, but he's surely not aiming for top bridesmaid even with Marchand and Wang Shun around!

inside with brett hawke banner logo transparent

BRETT HAWKE CLIPS OF THE WEEK

This week on INSIDE with BRETT HAWKE...

This morning at 8AM EST...

Catch up on all the world's fastest swimming and stories with Brett and Sonny at 8 AM EST on Dive Inside LIVE.

Tomorrow...

Jonathan Parouty is a French coach who left his coaching position and decided to travel the world and visit various programs to continue his education in coaching. He first went to Finland where he met ⁠Marko Malvela⁠, 5x Olympic Coach. He then went on to visit programs in the USA, Australia, and Spain taking notes on his observations and learnings each day. This nearly two-hour interview is jam packed with takeaways from the world's best swim coaches. You don't want to miss this one.

📝 SWIM SET OF THE WEEK

4x400's Freestyle SCY (after a 5,000 yd IM set...)

1 @ 3:55

1 @ 3:50

1 @ 3:45

1 @ 3:40

🤡 SWIMMING MEME OF THE WEEK

What is your favorite part of, "This Week in Swimming"?

Click on a link to tell us...