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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Some post Shanghai Worlds snippets
Flying world champion cast into a cage
(From City Newsflash)
After winning the men's 200m fly gold medal despite suffering from a toe fracture, Wu Peng was immediately rushed to the Shanghai hospital for treatment and his foot was subsequently placed in a cast. While his team mates went out to enjoy themselves after the meet, Wu Peng could only stay caged in the hotel to nurse his injury broodingly. This injury will delay his training for around half a month but won't affect his long-term training plans.
Qi Hui's most valued gold medal
(From Jing Sports and Eastern Sports Daily)
While Wu Peng stole the thunder from all his team mates on the final day of competition and 2000 short-course world champion Yang Yu regained the Midas touch after taking several minor medals at multiple long-course and short-course Worlds for the past six years, Qi Hui was still undoubtedly the best performer from China at this World Championship; she collected her three gold medals in two IM events and her previous main event -- the women's 200m breaststroke. It may not be surprising to others that she won the breaststroke world title, but it was the most unexpected victory for her. Qi Hui did not race the short-course 200m breaststroke for more than three years (the last time she raced was at the 2002 World Cup where she set the then short-course world record of 2:18.86) and never trained specifically for this event prior to this meet; she had already changed her focus to the IM upon Head Coach Zhang Yadong's suggestion. "If I say I never train for this event, I'm sure many people won't believe me, but it's true, I never did. I won the 400m IM gold and although I wasn't in top shape for this meet, I still wasn't pleased with my time; the 200m IM was slightly better but still not up to my expectations. The 200m breaststroke was really a pleasant surprise to me; despite the lack of short-course breaststroke training for so long, I was still able to swim faster than my 2002 winning time. I wasn't confident of winning on the last day but I didn't want to give up the 200m breaststroke. I thought if I didn't put in my best efforts for that race, I would no longer be able to stay in touch with that event. That was my secret at that time which was also my prime motivation for swimming well in the race. " That was why Qi Hui valued her 200m breaststroke gold medal the most.
Her coach Ye Jin also revealed that she was inspired by Aaron Peirsol when he came to China which led to a change in technique for Qi Hui's weakest stroke. Qi Hui used to lag behind all other swimmers after the backstroke leg in the IM races, but now she is not that far off from the early leaders.
Xu Yanwei sheds tears of gratitude
(From Beijing Evening News and Tonight Paper)
On the third night, the women's 4x100m medley relay team narrowly lost the silver medal to the Americans and Xu Yanwei wept uncontrollably after the race, which shocked her relay team mates. They tried to console her and Xu told them amidst her sobs that she didn't cry for the loss but her tears were tears of gratitude. She later also explained to the reporters, "It wasn't because we lost the silver medal, I was still very satisfied with my swim tonight. This is the first time I'm selected for this medley relay team for a very long while. Even since the 2002 Asian Games, I wasn't picked many times because of the fluctuations in my performances. I was informed by the team last night I was selected and it's very important to me; not only was it a recognition of my abilities, it showed that the swimming team was willing to place their trust in me and give me another chance. I want to thank those who trusted me; only my coach and I knew how we have endured these four years of hard work and sufferings so I'm really feeling overwhelmed right now. "
Zhang Yadong sums up performance of China's swim team
(From China News Network)
The Chinese swim team performed far better than expected at the 2006 Shanghai Short-course Worlds, setting several Asian and national records on their way to place third on the overall standings. They won five gold, 1 silver and six bronze medals, exceeding their pre-meet targets of 2-3 gold medals. Head Coach Zhang Yadong was more pleased with the team's fighting spirit and the overall improvement in placings of the swimmers. He singled out Wu Peng and Qi Hui for their grit despite injuries and ailments. Among the rookies, Zhang Yadong praised Jiao Liuyang and Zhang Xin for performing well at their first major international meet.
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/19/2006, 6:55 pm
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4/17/2006, 8:45 pm
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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Japan Swim 2006
Preview of swimming events at the Japan Swim 2006
(From Japan Swimming Federation)
The Japanese National Swimming Championships termed "Japan Swim 2006", which also doubles as the trials for three major meets -- 2006 Pan Pacific Championships, 2006 Doha Asian Games and 2007 Melbourne World Championship, will be held from 20th April to 23rd April.
Men's Freestyle:
The promising high school student Hiroaki Yamamoto, Makoto Ito and Daisuke Hosokawa, who set 100m and 200m freestyle short-course national records at the Japan Open in March, are the front-runners in the men's 50m freestyle; it'll be tough for them to better the current national record but let's watch how they can raise the standards in this event. In the 100m freestyle, Hisayoshi Sato, the first Asian to go under 50 seconds albeit rather late in terms of world standards, will be the centre of attention in this race. Hosokawa will also be gunning for the record and to defeat Sato; it'll also be interesting to see how many swimmers can go under 50 seconds this time. 200m freestyle Japanese record holder Yoshihiro Okumura, Syo Uchida, Hisayoshi Sato and Daisuke Hosokawa have all entered for the 200m freestyle event and the national record appears likely to fall. Takeshi Matsuda is also aiming for some records in the distance freestyle events, e.g. 400m and 800m freestyle, whilst Syo Uchida, who is venturing into longer distance events, will also be another swimmer to watch. In the 1500m freestyle, Matsuda did not enter for this event so the standard will be slightly lower this year.
Men's Backstroke:
The standard of men's backstroke is at a high currently in Japan so it will be difficult to predict the winners in the backstroke events. The main focus in the 50m and 100m is on Olympic medalist Tomomi Morita, whilst Junichi Miya****a, who defeated Morita in the 100m backstroke at the short-course Japan Open, and Masafumi Yamaguchi, third at the Japan Open, will compete for a share of the limelight. In the 200m event, Morita will go up against Asian record holder Takashi Nakano and this should be a race to look forward to. All of these swimmers will hope to break Japanese backstroke records and go under the World Championship A Standard to qualify for the Melbourne Worlds next year, so we can certainly expect some exciting races from them.
Men's Breaststroke:
Double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima should be dominant in the breaststroke events although he only came in third in the 200m race last year. The 200m breaststroke is expected to be highly contested again this year so let's see how it all turns out. Genki Imamura, who won a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke at last year's Montreal Worlds, will be the swimmer to look out for.
Men's Butterfly:
Ryo Takayasu, the 100m butterfly Asian short-course record holder, is favoured to win the shorter races whilst Worlds silver medalist Takeshi Matsuda and 200m butterfly short-course Japanese record holder Ryuichi Shibata are joint favourites for the 200m event. Throw Takashi Yamamoto (100m fly Asian recorld holder and 200m fly Olympic silver medalist) into the mix and the butterfly events are looking good; Yamamoto has returned to competition and will surely give his juniors a tough time.
Men's Individual Medley:
Asian short-course record holder Hidemasa Sano, who represented Japan in the IM events at 2005 Montreal Worlds, will be aiming to improve his personal best times and perhaps better the Japanese records. Ken Takakuwa, second to Sano at the short-course Japan Open, is expected to challenge the IM records as well. Other possible contenders include Taishi Okude and Jiro Miki, who still holds the Asian long-course records in both IM events.
Women's Freestyle:
The standards of the women's 50m to 200m freestyle events in Japan are quite low compared to world standards. Hopefully, this meet will see some swimmers qualify for the 2007 Worlds by going under the World Championship B standard. Kaori Yamada, Norie Urabe, Kei Aoki and Eriko Mashima are the sprinters to watch. The performances of Olympic champion Ai Shibata will be the highlight in the 400m and 800m freestyle events.
Women's Backstroke:
Sydney Olympic silver medalist Mai Nakamura, who set a new Asian short-course record in the 100m backstroke at the Japan Open, is back on track whilst Reiko Nakamura, Ito Hanae, Aya Terakawa and Takami Igarashi are also strong contenders. Without doubt, the women's backstroke races are going to be very exciting and the national records in all three events are in danger. The female backstroke swimmers from China have raised their standards recently so the Japanese swimmers need to rise to the occasion at this meet, improve the Japanese records and raise the standards across the board in the backstroke events.
Women's Breaststroke:
The women's breaststroke standards have also fallen behind world standards. 50m breaststroke champion at the short-course Japan Open Yoshimi Miwa, 200m breaststroke winner Megumi Taneda, up-and-coming high school record holder Asami Kitagawa, Sayaka Nakamura are the names to look out for; the tightest race should be the 200m breaststroke. Hopefully, they will try their best to erase existing Japanese national records.
Women's Butterfly:
The swimmer to watch here is Olympic medalist Yuko Nakanishi in both the 100m and 200m butterfly events; Nakanishi is likely to take a shot at her own 200m Japanese record. Yuka Kato set short-course national records at the Japan Open so we can expect some fast swimming from her.
Women's Individual Medley:
Fujino Maiko, who kept lowering Japanese IM short-course records for the past months, is also expected to shine in the long-course events this week. Other than Maiko, the rest of the field is quite a distance from top international standards so the younger swimmers will be targetting personal best times.
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/20/2006, 5:42 pm
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4/17/2006, 8:47 pm
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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Kitajima zooming in on Beijing Olympics
Athens Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima has decided to put a hold on his studies at least until 2008 and concentrate on his goal for successive victories at the Olympics. Kitajima signed a contract for Coca Cola and turned professional last year, but found difficulties in juggling both his studies and swimming career. He was determined to repeat his performances at the Beijing Olympics and sacrificing his studies appeared the best choice to him. The Japanese University of Physical Education has made an allowance for him to be re-admitted after the 2008 Olympics; Kitajima said, "If I want to study at that time, I'll return to school."
Kitajima won the 100m breaststroke event at the recent World Championship Trials but only placed fourth in the 200m and lost his 50m title in a slow race. He's leaving for a Japanese national team training camp at Guam, and he promised he'll start all over again in his preparations for successive Olympic titles as a professional swimmer.
Zhou Yafei sprinkles life through blogging
(From Sina Sports)
2003 World Champion (relay) Zhou Yafei failed to post personal best times at the short-course Worlds in April because she was still recovering from an operation and she will again only test the waters at the upcoming Asian Games Trials. Her focus this year, as with all the other Chinese swimmers, is the 2006 Doha Asian Games. Four years ago at the 2002 Pusan Asian Games, she won two gold medals in the 100m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay which compensated her for her perseverance all these years. Another four years passed and 22 year-old Zhou Yafei has spent 18 years in the pool. A swimmer's life is rather dry with endless cycles of training and competition. To Yafei, her only relevant skill in life is to swim; she felt quite lost regarding her future but was encouraged by her father to hang on. Zhou Yafei finally decided to continue on for the 2006 Asian Games and 2008 Olympics. Yafei's father told her she's already more fortunate than many others, having achieved some good results in her chosen career thus far and won admiration from many fans.
Aside from swimming, Yafei has started to try out new stuff such as blogging. Although she had no inkling what blogging's about initially, Yafei was able to learn fast and create a new "home" for her in merely three days -- her blog "A Duckling's Ocean".
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5/7/2006, 3:31 pm
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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Japan : Kitajima has returned to Japan after a week's training at the camp in Guam.
China : The 2006 China Nationals will start tomorrow (12th May) which also serves as a selection meet for the Doha Asian Games.
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5/11/2006, 1:43 pm
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China: Zhou Yafei mentioned in her blog she just returned from the Mare Nostrum competition and will start her training for the next Asian Games selection meet. She went through an operation last December and since then had only some light training. Yafei was unable to attend the Mare Nostrum meets for the past few years due to a packed schedule but this year, her coach specifically brought her along for the trip.
Wu Peng has also resumed heavy training after his short recuperation for his ankle injury and the China Nationals. He hasn't adapted to the intensity yet but felt he should be able to recover fully after a month's training. According to Wu Peng's blog, he recently attended English lessons conducted at their training center; he's also a big fan of Germany's football team and will be rooting for Germany at the ongoing 2006 World Cup.
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6/13/2006, 4:20 pm
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Singapore: Joscelyn Yeo, bronze medalist in the women's 100m butterfly at both 1994 and 2002 Asian Games, has qualified for the 2006 Asian Games in the 200m IM event at Singapore's selection meet. She timed 2:19.58, which was nearly three seconds off her personal best of 2:16.86. She has already qualified for the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly events. Tao Li and Quah Ting Wen also qualified in the women's 50m backstroke (29.71) and the women's 1500m freestyle (17:30.59). Another three qualifiers for the 2006 Asian Games -- Bryan Tay, Marcus Cheah and Roanne Ho.
Japan: Junya Koga (JPN), who finished second behind Tomomi Morita in the men's 50m backstroke event at the recent Japan Nationals, lowered his personal best time by 0.1 seconds at the 2006 Mare Nostrum. Koga's time of 25.39 seconds also equalled the Japanese national record set by Morita at Nationals.
Last edited by sportsworld, 6/22/2006, 6:11 am
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6/21/2006, 5:47 pm
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willchan
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Good updates! Do you know how to get competition news from Korea? They have a nice swimming federation website but all info is in Korean which I don't understand at all. I think Korea is improving a lot recently in swimming and some of them are pretty competitive. Like Park Tae Kwan who is likely to beat Chinese and Japanese elites in 400 and 1500m free in Asian Games.
By the way, I am studying in Singapore and I got to catch some live actions of Asian Championships a few months ago. There were a few memorable races that are worth mentioning. One was women's 200m back and the other was women's 200m butterfly. Before Zhao Jing's 2:09.58. There have been 9 years no Chinese swimmer broke 2:10 in 200m back. Jiao Liuyang's 2:08.54 in 200m fly was also the best Chinese mark in 9 years after Qu Yun's 2:08.10 in 1997. Chinese males look more confident than before in the international competitions.
Talking about Joscelyn Yeo, i think she was somewhat lucky to win bronze medals in 2 editions of Asian Games because it is hard for her to beat 2 x best Chinese and 2 x best Japanese in the race if they were all in good form. Furthermore, her medal winning times were all outside 1 min. I know she has been competing like more than 10 years, studying in US and collected numerable gold medals in South East Asian Games but she doesn't seem to improve much over the years.
Regarding the Olympic swimming finals being scheduled in the morning, it's hard for some people to accept because finals are conventionally scheduled in the evening of the host country. If finals are always in the morning, people might not feel weird about the morning finals. It doesn't mean I agree with US trying to tip the balance towards them. But obviously, it is a self-centered behaviour to change something that is to their own advantages (including their swimmers' performances and broadcasting time) while upsets the majority.
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6/25/2006, 10:45 am
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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
For Korean swimming news, I simply check the usual swimming sites but there isn't any on Koreans so far. Park Tae Hwan is very young and promising, he's likely to crack the 15:00 barrier in 1500m freestyle soon.
I started a thread back then with some updates on the Asian Championships.
Asian Championships thread
Asian Championships thread(chinese version) with more detailed analysis.
You're right, Zhen Yinjuan (2:08) was the last Chinese swimmer to go under 2:10 at the 97 National Games but was also another one-hit wonder at a local meet. He Cihong was the last swimmer (back in 1994) to swim under 2:10 at regional/international meets. Zhao Jing is quite consistent so far, having already swum several 2:11s and 2:12s so I would think Zhao Jing is a more legitimate successor of He Cihong. Similarly, the last time a Chinese swimmer went under 2:10 at regional/international meets was 100m fly Atlanta Olympic silver medalist Liu Limin. Qu Yun and Hu Ning swam 2:08s at 97 National Games while Liu Yin and Chen Yan also swam 2:08s at 2001 National Games. Qu Yun was the 94 Worlds silver medalist (2:07) but Hu Ning and Liu Yin never matched their times at other meets, especially at the major ones. Chen Yan won three medals (2 gold 1 silver) at the 98 Worlds but failed to produce good results at two Olympics and only shone at two National Games. Jiao Liuyang is also still very young and has performed very well so far, including her 2:08 at a regional meet and short-course 58s at Worlds this year. Let's see which route she'll take in future -- Liu Limin (World Champion and Olympic medalist), Qu Yun/Chen Yan (World champion/medalist but flop at Olympics) or the other two one-hit wonders.
quote:
Talking about Joscelyn Yeo, i think she was somewhat lucky to win bronze medals in 2 editions of Asian Games because it is hard for her to beat 2 x best Chinese and 2 x best Japanese in the race if they were all in good form.
That's the beauty of sports really, one has to perform at the right moment, regardless of one's past achievements. At 94 Asian Games, Liu Limin and Qu Yun were at their peak but the Japanese swimming program wasn't very effective then, so Joscelyn came in third behind the World Champion and silver medalist. At 2002 Asian Games, China's and Japan's top representatives Zhou Yafei and Yuko Nakanishi took the top two spots but Joscelyn Yeo defeated Zheng Xi to win bronze; Zheng Xi was another one-hit wonder at 2001 National Games with her 58.8 swim while the other Japanese swimmer Maki Mita was more a 200m freestyle swimmer; Japan's top swimmer Junko Onishi wasn't part of their Asian Games team for unknown reasons. Joscelyn cracked the 1:00 barrier end of last year at the Southeast Asian Games with a personal best of 59.91, so she can still challenge for a medal at this year's Asian Games.
2006 Southeast Asian Games
Last edited by sportsworld, 6/25/2006, 3:15 pm
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6/25/2006, 3:13 pm
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China : (China Sports Paper) Most of the national team members took a short break from training after the China Nationals in May and starting from July this year, the swimmers will go on separate training paths. Yang Yu, Xu Yanwei, Zhu Yingwen, Wang Qun etc will travel to USA for training whilst Qi Hui, Zhao Jing and several others will go to Australia; Wu Peng and Pang Jiaying will proceed for altitude training in Yunnan and Qinghai whilst Luo Xuejuan, Zhou Yafei, Zhang Lin and Gao Chang will remain in Beijing. Most of China's top swimmers will also skip Pan Pacs in August due to the upcoming Asian Games selection meet, but Zhang Lin has opted to attend the Pan Pacs. According to Zhang Lin's coach (Chen Yinghong), the trip will give Zhang Lin another chance to compete against some of the best distance swimmers in the world and help him gain much valuable experience.
Last edited by sportsworld, 6/30/2006, 4:27 am
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6/29/2006, 5:06 pm
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea :
Several top swimmers of China's national team collected three silver and three bronze medals at the 2006 Janet Evans Invitational in USA. Both Xu Yanwei and Wang Qun contributed one silver and one bronze each in their respective events -- Xu took silver in the women's 100m butterfly and bronze in the women's 50m freestyle whilst Wang took silver in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m. The other two medals came from the men -- Li Ziqiang took silver in the men's 400m IM whilst Wang Haibo took bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke. Their results weren't particularly impressive but the meet served as a valuable experience abroad for the swimmers' training programmes. They will continue to stay and train there until end of July.
Malaysia's Siow Yiting also had some strong performances at this meet. She won the 200m IM in 2:17.29, ahead of top American IMer Whitney Myers. Siow Yiting also came in 4th in both the 200m breaststroke and 400m IM, and 6th in the 100m breaststroke. Sachico Yamada (JPN) placed 4th in women's 800m freestyle on the first night but did not swim the 400m freestyle final after qualifying 7th in the heats. Cho Sung Mo (KOR) won a bronze medal (15:32.25) in the men's 1500m freestyle, placed 6th in both the 400m and 800m freestyle and 80th in the 200m freestyle.
Last edited by sportsworld, 7/19/2006, 5:57 am
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7/18/2006, 6:15 pm
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