willchan
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Re: 2006 China Asian Games Trials
Actually, the results were not all bad like Zhang Yadong's comment. But I agree with him that Chinese swimmers are walking while their foreign counterparts are running, in terms of speed of improvement.
In my opinion, I am not surprised if Chinese is going to win the "medal competition" again in Asian Games. Even so, it only represents a small corner of the whole picture. In 2002 before Busan Asian Games, the situation was even worse. It ended up a big win for China in the Sino-Japanese swimming war. How about after that? Japan becomes one of the powerhouse in World swimming proving themselves in all big competitions while Chinese is moving along slowly. Japan is no longer satisfied with the win in Asian turf but in world competitions. They treat Asian Games as an important meet but not the only meet. In Panpac 2006, Japan dished out their full force. Compared to China, only Zhang Lin is qualified as the top Chinese swimmer in the team. You can see Ito Hanae in Panpac. Definitely, compared to Nathalie Couglin, she still has a gap to fill but she did the right thing at the right time to beat Couglin. It really boosts her confidence and motivation to improve her future performance. Chinese swimmers also needs this kind of thing. Putting all the technology aside, one of the reasons why Japanese swimming is going so fast is that they care to race internationally. When they have swimmers making to the final and beating some great swimmers, it really encourages other domestic swimmers to do well. With good training and competitive environments, the swimmers will definitely flourish.
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9/16/2006, 8:09 am
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sportsworld
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Re: 2006 China Asian Games Trials
I agree with you that Chinese swimmers should race more in major international meets, but different countries focus on different meets in a non-Olympic and non-WC year. Japan is one of four countries which host the Pan Pacs every four years (previously two). China was but a country they invited to compete at the Pan Pacs each time it was held. For the Chinese, they have two target meets in 2006 -- the Asian Games in December and because they were the hosts, the FINA Short-course World Championships in April. Between April and December, the selection trials were held in May and September so the August Pan Pacs didn't figure in their training plans. In fact, China's top swimmers were allowed to skip Pan Pacs but Zhang Lin chose to attend because he wanted to race against some of the best distance swimmers in the world. Like you've said, it'll definitely benefit the Chinese swimmers if more of them took on the challenge like Zhang Lin. Of course, some other issues like funds, disruption of training plans, jetlag/fatigue etc will surface.
Also, the Japanese Swimming Federation designated Pan Pacs as one of the selection meets for 2007 World Championships and set very tough qualifying standards. Hence the Jap swimmers have to swim their best times at Pan Pacs, especially those who missed the A selection criteria at their trials.
So, unlike the 2005 Worlds and China Games where most of the Chinese swimmers focussed on the latter, I'd think skipping Pan Pacs for Asian Games is much more understandable.
According to some recent news reports from China, the CSA has placed more importance on the 2007 Melbourne World Championships held three months after the Asian Games. So possibly, some of the top female swimmers may not peak for this meet although the men will still taper and be in full force against their traditional rivals at the Asian Games.
Last edited by sportsworld, 9/16/2006, 5:47 pm
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9/16/2006, 5:27 pm
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