Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Japan:
Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima guarded his territory in the men's breaststroke events at an off-season local meet, the Tokyo Invitational, where he swept all three long-course races in 28.25, 1:01.65 and 2:12.55. Ryo Tateishi, who erased Kitajima's high school record last year, was unable to dethrone Kitajima in the 200m breaststroke, clocking 2:14.98. Many top Japanese swimmers attended this meet, amongst them -- Takeshi Matsuda swam a competitive 1:57.41 in the men's 200m butterfly, Fujino Maiko was close to her 400m IM PB in 4:42.99, and Reiko Nakamura dominated the women's backstroke finals in 29.14 and 1:01.32 (heats: 1:01.78).
Ryosuke Irie, 2007 Japan Invitational champion and 2006 Asian Games gold medalist, lowered his own 100m backstroke high school record from 54.74 secs to 54.60 secs in the medley relay lead-off at another local meet in Osaka. Irie also timed 55.31 and 1:58.14 in the 100m and 200m individual races.
|
|
12/2/2007, 5:02 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Thailand (Southeast Asian Games):
The 24th SEA Games ended last week with a bundle of meet records in the swimming events. There wasn't any spectaclular performances in terms of international or continental standards but there was also no lack of promising young talent emerging from the woodwork.
With the retirement of Southeast Asian swim queen Joscelyn Yeo (SIN), Tao Li (SIN) and Natthanan J. Krajang (THA) battled across five days of competition for the top female swimmer at this SEA Games. Both ended the meet with four gold medals each -- Tao Li took gold in the women's 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 4x100m medley and silver in the 200m IM, whilst Natthanan was victorious in the 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and two freestyle relays. Migel Molina (PHI) was the best male performer of the meet, winning the 200m breaststroke, two IM events and two relay events.
The top performance in the men's events went to Daniel Coakley (PHI), who grabbed the side of beef from the pack vying for the men's 50m freestyle sprint title. Coakley clocked 22.80 secs, faster than the bronze medalist's time at the 2006 Asian Games.
For the best female performance in the pool, Nicolette Teo (SIN) successfully defended her crown in the women's 100m breaststroke in a meet record of 1:10.15, which would have placed her on the medal podium at the 2006 Asian Games. She also won the 200m breaststroke title and clocked a 1:09 split in the medley relay. Khoo Cai Lin (MAL) swam 8:47.80 in the women's 800m freestyle, faster than the fifth-placed swimmer in this event at the Asian Games.
|
|
12/21/2007, 8:33 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China:
Chinese in Oz
Zhang Lin became the first Chinese to swim under 15 mins in the men's 1500m freestyle event. He timed a new national record of 14:59.02 at a meet in Queensland, Australia. Zhang Lin also dropped more than two seconds to set a new Chinese record of 3:46.24 in the 400m freestyle event. His 1:47.95 in the 200m freestyle was slightly off his PB but was enough to win the title. Zhang Lin's coach was pleased with his achievements in Oz but Zhang Lin was obviously aiming much higher; his goal was to crack 1:47 in 200m, 3:46 in 400m and 14:55 in 1500m freestyle. Despite initial hiccups where he found the training more intensive than what he was accustomed to in China, Zhang Lin endured the tough training with grit and was now able to sustain loads specifically designed for him. They also admitted it'll take some time to assimilate the Aussies' training methods completely and decided to extend the training for another month.
Zhang Lin used to match Park Tae Hwan in races before 2006, but Park Tae Hwan (KOR) had stretched further ahead with remarkable performances at subsequent major meets. Ever since Park's rapid ascent, Zhang Lin was consumed with anxiety to bridge the widening gap and grumbled repeatedly to the press about his predicament. A rare opportunity finally came his way last month when the Chinese Swimming Federation gave the green light for his coach to go abroad and learn from the leaders in men's distance freestyle -- the Aussies.
This meet at Queensland served as a mid-term test to analyse Zhang Lin's progress and spot other weaknesses to improve. They'll return to China on 25th Jan 2008 and will compete at the Beijing Olympic Swimming Pool in early February to gauge the benefits of their training in Australia.
Chinese Winter Championships
Most of China's top swimmers skipped this meet due to heavy winter training but a handful chose to compete as part of their training programs. On the first night, Xutian Longzi upset Gao Chang in the women's 50m backstroke with a PB of 28.87 secs. Gao Chang finished second in 28.96 ses. On the second day, Xutian Longzi repeated her victory in the women's 200m backstroke with a time of 2:14.48. China Games champion Huang Xiaotong triumphed in the women's 200m butterfly final on Day 3 with a time of 2:09.89, whilst Luo Nan took both the women's 100m and 200m breaststroke titles in 1:09.67 and 2:28.80 respectively. On the final day, Zhou Yafei swept two championship titles in the 50m butterfly (26.71 secs) and the 100m freestyle (56.53 secs) finals.
_______________________________________________________________
Japan:
Another top Asian swimmer feeling the pangs of anxiety at the turn of the year is Kosuke Kitajima. He initially abandoned his regular plans of competing in the month of January, but has since reverted to his original schedule because of the Beijing Olympics. This meant that he'll train through the New Year without much rest, other than perhaps catching some New Year specials on television.
_______________________________________________________________
South Korea:
World champion Park Tae Hwan recently won a popularity contest in his country, winning the highest number of votes against a renowned philantropist and the currently most idolised female actress in South Korea. Park is targetting a new World Record in the men's 400m freestyle at the Beijing Olympics where he'll don a full body suit for the first time. He had some problems with the full body suit at the Japan International in August 2007, but felt that he'll have to overcome this problem in Beijing for him to achieve his maximum potential.
Park's decision was also partly influenced by Grant Hackett at the Sydney World Cup where he saw Hackett wearing the full body suit even in training.
Last edited by sportsworld, 1/1/2008, 4:24 pm
|
|
1/1/2008, 3:52 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China: Zhang Lin packed his bag and bade adieu to Australia after three months of training under Denis Cotterell. He'll compete at China Open, from 31st Jan to 5th Feb, in the newly constructed Olympic Swimming Center. Zhang Lin set two Chinese records during his Aussie stint and in order to reach another level, he's likely to return to Australia in April, after the March Nationals, for another round of training.
Joining Zhang Lin at the 2008 China Open is Qi Hui, who suffered a major setback at the Worlds last year and had to endure juvenile name-calling from various sources. She mentioned in her blog that she'll swim the 200m breaststroke and 200m IM at the Swimming Center, which she was clearly impressed with. Most of China's top swimmers will continue their winter training, which stretches longer than usual, and will skip this meet.
Japan: At a local long-course meet today, 2007 Japan Invitational champion Ryosuke Irie took more than half a second off Takashi Nakano's 200m backstroke Asian record with his time of 1:56.53. He also set a meet record of 54.83 seconds in the 100m backstroke.
Takeshi Matsuda claimed two titles -- the men's 200m freestyle in 1:48.68 and the 200m butterfly in 1:56.50. Olympic silver medalist Takayashi Yamamoto finished behind Matsuda in the 200m buttefly (1:57.58) but won the 100m butterfly in 53.50. Asian Games champion Yuri Yano triumphed twice in the women's 400m and 800m freestyle events against Olympic champion Ai Shibata, who recently paraded her latest body suit to the press. Their results -- 4:12.62 and 4:12.88 in the 400m, 8:35.58 and 8:39.97 in the 800m.
Other notable swims, during this period of heavy training, came from Ryo Tateishi in the men's 200m breaststroke (2:13.15), Ryo Takayasu in the men's 100m butterfly (53.64) and Fujino Maiko in the women's 400m IM (4:43.20).
Japan: Kosuke Kitajima swam as scheduled at a short-course meet in January but registered rather slow times of 59.70 in the 100m breaststroke and 2:09.02 in the 200m breaststroke. Kitajima treated this meet as part of his training and wasn't too focussed on achieving top times there, having to compete amidst twelve year-olds.
Last edited by sportsworld, 1/27/2008, 5:57 pm
|
|
1/27/2008, 4:57 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China ("Good Luck Beijing" China Open): Host country China nabbed the first gold medal in the Beijing Olympic pool, for good luck obviously. Shi Feng (CHN) and Wang Dong (CHN) were the ones who delivered, claiming the top two prizes in the men's 100m butterfly final. Germany reigned in the first session of morning finals with three gold medals, one of which came from world record holder Britta Steffen in the women's 100m freestyle. Natsumi Hoshi (JPN) was arguably the best performer on Day 1 -- she clocked 2:07.35 in the women's 200m butterfly evening heats and subsequently went on to win the final in 2:08.55 (1:02.42 at 100m). Hoshi led throughout the race whilst Olympic champion Otylia Jedrzejczak had to overcome a sluggish first 150m to pip Choi Hye Ra at the wall (2:10.18 to 2:10.47).
Link to Official Site with results :
http://www.swimming2008.org.cn/en/
|
|
2/1/2008, 9:01 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China:
Good Luck Beijing paved the way for Olympic hopefuls to learn to acclimatise in Beijing and reshape their training for the actual event in August. Host country China and Germany topped the team standings at the end of this meet with 12 and 8 gold medals in that order.
Zhang Lin (CHN) set a new Chinese national record of 3:45.04 in the men's 400m freestyle, which can be considered equivalent to the World No. 2 time in 2007 if we ignore race conditions. Qi Hui (CHN), who was almost blighted by a risky experiment arranged for her last year, spat it out and stormed back to collect two gold medals in the pool and reach her meet target of attaining Olympic A qualification standard in her three events. Credit was given to where it's due : Qi Hui attributed the success of her comeback to her coach, who gave her tremendous support during this tough period, and her new fitness trainer, who roped her back from near retirement.
Zhang Yadong, China's Head Coach, summarised the meet as a test where in spite of the gold medal haul, his charges barely hovered above the passing grade and would have sunk in the presence of the best from the west, top Japanese and Aussies swimmers etc (majority of China's top swimmers also skipped this meet). He singled out Zhang Lin as the top performer in their team and remarked that Qi Hui still require much work towards her recovery. The true test for the Chinese team will arrive in March at their final selection trials and from there, the Beijing Olympics.
Last edited by sportsworld, 2/8/2008, 6:22 pm
|
|
2/8/2008, 6:20 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Japan:
Japanese swimmers aced the build-up to their Olympic Trials with a massive haul of records at the Japanese Short-course Championships. The men, led by Olympic Champion Kosuke Kitajima, hooked in six Asian short-course records whilst the women were even more impressive with two World Records and five continental records including the two.
Asian record holder Reiko Nakamura elevated her status to the next level, swimming a new World Record of 2:03.24 in the women's 200m backstroke. She also collected another Asian record of 58.08 secs in the 100m backstroke. Yuko Nakanishi powered to 2:03.12 in the women's 200m butterfly for a new World Record.
Kitajima was evidently in great shape, lowering his own Asian record twice in the men's 100m breaststroke event. He timed 57.89 in the heats and 57.62 in the final, and was close to his other record in the 200m breaststroke with a 2:05. His heir apparent, Ryo Tateishi, was however snapping at his heels in both events with two high school records.
Yuka Kato dominated her races to set new Asian records in the women's 50m and 100m butterfly events. She became the first Asian female swimmer to go under 26 secs in the 50m butterfly - twice, 25.99 in heats and 25.95 in the final - and improved her 100m butterfly record to 57.12 secs. Likewise, Tomomi Morita became the first Asian male swimmer to break the 24-second barrier in the 50m backstroke with his Asian record of 23.88 secs. He also took the 200m race in a continental mark of 1:53.01.
The other two Asian record holders at this meet were Ryo Takayasu, who broke his own 100m butterfly record in 50.55 secs, and Hidemasa Sano (52.91) in the men's 100m IM, who perhaps gave Kitajima a slightest sense of regret by taking down his Asian record.
There were five other Japanese records set in the pool and a couple of fast high school records:
National Records
- Hisayoshi Sato (21.94) in the men's 50m freestyle
- Hisayoshi Sato (48.19) in the men's 100m freestyle
- Syogo Hihara (1:44.72) in the men's 200m freestyle
- Takeshi Matsuda (3:41.86) in the men's 400m freestyle
- Asami Kitagawa (1:06.18) in the women's 100m breaststroke
High School Records
- Kazuki Ohbayashi (23.38) in the men's 50m butterfly
- Kazuki Ohbayashi (51.26) in the men's 100m butterfly
- Ryo Tateishi (2:06.52) in the men's 200m breaststroke
- Izumi Kato (4:32.53) in the women's 400m IM
Last edited by sportsworld, 2/26/2008, 5:42 pm
|
|
2/26/2008, 5:39 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China's National Swimming Championships started rolling last night with the heats and continued today with five morning finals. This meet is the final designated Olympic selection trials among several meandering towards the eventual test in August.
Zhou Jiawei came close to his 100m fly Asian record in 52.27s, relegating Wu Peng to second, who was nevertheless satisfied with his PB of 52.99s. Pang Jiayang took the women's 200m freestyle title as expected, in 1:58.32. Whilst several top veterans have dropped this event in favour of sprint events, younger ones have also sprouted to fill the gaps. Zhu Qianwei, 2007 City Games champion, knocked 0.45 secs off her PB to earn a spot on China's Olympic swim team; Tan Miao and Liu Jin also swam under 2:00 in the evening heats.
Xu Yanwei swam within 0.03 secs of her PB in the women's 100m butterfly and it was sufficient to fend off 17 year-old Deng Biying. Deng clocked a PB of 58.95 in heats and improved by 0.01 second in the final. All finalists in this event went under a minute in the heats, which was certainly a first in their domestic competition -- not even the finals of China's National Games.
Looking at the tremendous progress of the Aussie swim team since they last hosted the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the unmistakable depth among China's junior swimmers hinted at the inevitable undertow in years to come. Compared to Australia's Olympic trials held earlier, supposed stars of this meet have not, however, started on a roll on "Day 1".
|
|
3/31/2008, 5:37 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
The second session of finals conjured better quality performances than the morning before, but none of which was groundbreaking.
In the women's 400m IM, City Games champion Li Xuanxu and Asian Games champion Qi Hui sparred for the first time and it was the 14 year-old girl who touched first in 4:39.07. Qi Hui was close behind in 4:39.64.
The women's 200m backstroke evening heats saw a group of five swimmers beneath the Olympic A Standard in the range of 2:11s and 2:12s. In the final, Zhao Jing spun away from her peers with a convincing winning margin of three seconds. Her 2:08.41 was also more than a second faster than her PB set in 2006.
Zhang Lin, who returned to home soil for this Trials, narrowly missed his national record with a 1:47.63 in the men's 200m freestyle. He'll fly back to Ozzie Land for training again in May. Ouyang Kunpeng also qualified in the men's 200m backstroke in 1:59.51.
Unlike the European Championships and Australian Olympic trials, most of the top swimmers at this meet have preferred to don traditional swimwear instead of bodysuits. It could be one of the reasons why they're still racing at ground speed, but likely not.
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/3/2008, 4:56 pm
|
|
4/1/2008, 5:43 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
sportsworld
Administrator
Global user
Registered: 08-2004
Posts: 1363
Karma: 2 (+2/-0)
|
|
|
|
Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
Two Chinese national records took a tumble in the evening heats of "Day 3", set by Wu Peng (1:54.82) in the men's 200m butterfly and Xie Zhi (1:01.63) in the men's 100m breaststroke. The women's 200m butterfly heats were also impressive as the top seven qualifiers went under the Olympic A standard; Deng Biying and Yuan Xiaochen led the pack in 2:09.38 and 2:09.77.
After a night's sleep, Wu Peng took another stab at the Asian record. His record-breaking hopes were nearly lost in the woods after floundering his start. Wu Peng displayed resilience as he chased down the early leaders and by the time he reached the 150m mark, he was within record pace. Wu Peng however faltered near the end and when he touched the wall, he already knew he'd failed in his mission. Dismay showed on his face even before turning his head for a glance at the scoreboard. According to Wu Peng, after the race, the root cause was fatigue from overexertion in the previous day's heats which had him struggling in the last 15m. Meanwhile, Melbourne World Championship finalist Chen Yin swam a PB of 1:55.62 to knock on the door of the Olympics.
Liu Zige sculpted a good race plan in the women's 200m butterfly final, leading at each turn to win the title in 2:07.76, a PB of around 1.5 seconds. Pre-race favourite Jiao Liuyang nearly had to walk the plank as she flirted dangerously in the race. She alternated placings at each turn with another contender for the Olympic spot in this event, China National Games champion Huang Xiaotong, and relied on her strong finish to place second in 2:08.84. Huang came in third with a time of 2:09.32, and the top seven again swam within A standard.
In the women's 400m freestyle final, Tan Miao switched gears in her usual strike zones to pass the leaders at each point and won the race in 4:09.69. City Games champion You Meihong clocked 4:10.83 for second spot.
Cai Li carved a few hundredths of a second off his PB to win the men's 50m freestyle in 22.70 seconds. He however failed to reach the Olympic A standard and may have to branch off to represent China in other events such as the freestyle relays, depending on decisions made by China's National Team coaches.
After a national record in the heats, Xie Zhi was unable to replicate nor surpass his earlier performance in the final. He logged 1:01.90, which was however enough to earn him the title.
With three pairs of heats and finals under the bridge, only two national records were set thus far. The crowd is getting impatient, the coaches anxious and swimmers more determined than ever to prove themselves - all of whom are curious to see where do they go from here for the latter half of this Olympic selection meet.
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/12/2008, 6:22 am
|
|
4/2/2008, 6:33 pm
|
Send Email to sportsworld
Send PM to sportsworld
Blog
|
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Powered by AkBBS 0.9.5b - Link to us
- Blogs
- Hall of Honour
- Chat
Click here to get your own free message board
|
You are not logged in (login)
Board's time is: 11/22/2009, 3:10 pm
|
|
|