Swimming at the Aquatics FINA World Championships 2019

[Dunadan 1,103]

Wellbrock out with a very bad time, is he also sick?

[phelps 7,678]

wow! last night's session has been one of the most surprising heats session ever, I guess...

 

between DNSs and poor performances by some of the most expected athletes, there was no time to fall asleep despite the time (European time, of course)...

 

it might sound a bit rough, no intention to denigrate anybody, trust me...but I'm so happy to see Paltrinieri on top of the 800m heats and Wellbrock out of the final with such a poor performance...

 

after the last 2 seasons full of troubles and full of losses against the German (and Romanchuck, who's still there), it was a really needed boost for Greg...

 

p.s. and now I'm really curious to watch the women's 1500m free final without Ledecky...it could be an interesting race...

[OlympicsFan 858]

I have to say that with everything that is happening here, the results will be as good a predictor for the olympic games as the results of track cycling world championships usually are, so they will basically be worthless.

Edited July 23, 2019 by OlympicsFan

[OlympicsFan 858]

I don't know what italian swimming officials offered to the devil, but it must have been exremely valuable. There is no other explanation for what is currently happening to italian swimming.

1) Ledecky dropping 1500 free + all the other top 800 free girls not even competing -> Gold for Quadarella

2) Everyone dropping out of the 200 free -> Gold for Pellegrini?

3) Wellbrock almost falling asleep in the 800 prelims -> 2 medals for Italy

[phelps 7,678]

1 minute ago, OlympicsFan said:

I don't know what italian swimming officials offered to the devil, but it must have been exremely valuable. There is no other explanation for what is currently happening to italian swimming.

1) Ledecky dropping 1500 free + all the other top 800 free girls not even competing -> Gold for Quadarella

2) Everyone dropping out of the 200 free -> Gold for Pellegrini?

3) Wellbrock almost falling asleep in the 800 prelims -> 2 medals for Italy

 

1) we didn't do anything...if Ledecky got sick, it's only bad luck (for her)...but the other top 800m free girls are all there (except for Titmus, but she's obviously more 200m/400m oriented...there was no chance she sould start in this race since the schedule was known)...find me someone else better than Belmonte, Wang, Kesely and Kohler in that discipline -maybe Smith could do well over the 800m, but surely she's not a top 1500m specialist, as she's also more a 200m specialist than a long distance's)...

 

2) I think Titmus and Sjostrom don't agree... but I hope...of course...

 

3) it can happen...we'll see in the next few days if Wellbrock just wasn't focused enough today or if he dedicated himself too much to open water swimming and he's momentarily "lost the touch" in the pool (after his heat, Paltrinieri this morning said it was really diffcult to get back to competitive swimming in the pool in such a short time after the open water races)...

[OlympicsFan 858]

11 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

1) we didn't do anything...if Ledecky got sick, it's only bad luck (for her)...but the other top 800m free girls are all there (except for Titmus, but she's obviously more 200m/400m oriented...there was no chance she sould start in this race since the schedule was known)...find me someone else better than Belmonte, Wang, Kesely and Kohler in that discipline -maybe Smith could do well over the 800m, but surely she's not a top 1500m specialist, as she's also more a 200m specialist than a long distance's)...

 

2) I think Titmus and Sjostrom don't agree... but I hope...of course...

 

3) it can happen...we'll see in the next few days if Wellbrock just wasn't focused enough today or if he dedicated himself too much to open water swimming and he's momentarily "lost the touch" in the pool (after his heat, Paltrinieri this morning said it was really diffcult to get back to competitive swimming in the pool in such a short time after the open water races)...

1) Didn't see Bingjie or Smith swimming the 1500 free, must have missed them.

2) Fair point, but with Ledecky, Ruck and McKeon all competing, Pellegrini would have had very slim medal chances at best, now she is a favorite for a medal.

3) Wellbrock refused to give interviews after the race, but his coach said that a) His technique was sloppy and b) He had the feeling that after his 10k gold medal, everyone in Germany was expecting him to "save" german swimming here and that pressure apparently got to him. His coach also said that currently Wellbrock is pretty destroyed and has the feeling as if he doesn't know how to swim anymore, so i would say it is more likely for him to not make the 1500 free final than to win a medal. I guess he will have to choose between open water and pool swimming next year and if he is smart, then he will choose pool swimming.

Edited July 23, 2019 by OlympicsFan

[Wumo 3,002]

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

I don't know what italian swimming officials offered to the devil, but it must have been exremely valuable. There is no other explanation for what is currently happening to italian swimming.

1) Ledecky dropping 1500 free + all the other top 800 free girls not even competing -> Gold for Quadarella

2) Everyone dropping out of the 200 free -> Gold for Pellegrini?

3) Wellbrock almost falling asleep in the 800 prelims -> 2 medals for Italy

I don't seem to understand. Why would the Italian swimming officials offer something to Sun Yang? 

[phelps 7,678]

59 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

1) Didn't see Bingjie or Smith swimming the 1500 free, must have missed them.

2) Fair point, but with Ledecky, Ruck and McKeon all competing, Pellegrini would have had very slim medal chances at best, now she is a favorite for a medal.

3) Wellbrock refused to give interviews after the race, but his coach said that a) His technique was sloppy and b) He had the feeling that after his 10k gold medal, everyone in Germany was expecting him to "save" german swimming here and that pressure apparently got to him. His coach also said that currently Wellbrock is pretty destroyed and has the feeling as if he doesn't know how to swim anymore, so i would say it is more likely for him to not make the 1500 free final than to win a medal. I guess he will have to choose between open water and pool swimming next year and if he is smart, then he will choose pool swimming.

 

1) the same Li that didn't even make the final over the 400m free and opted for the 200m free instead of the 1500m but swam a modest 1.57.5 in the heats? and that has a PB just below 16 mins?

and as I wrote, I don't remember Smith being so strong over the 1500m...she's definitely very good over the 800m, great over 400m, pretty good over the 200m free...but not exactly a medal contender over the longer distance...

as I wrote, with Wang, Kesely and Kohler we have the best possible starting field (except for Ledecky, of course)...

and now we have also Belmonte, even if she does look totally out of shape (and in fact she was originally eliminated over the distance)...

 

2) I agree on Ruck, but I think McKeown and Ledecky were in the pool 2 years ago...

 

3) not good at all for him...

hopefully, in the next few days he's going to improve his mood...

Edited July 23, 2019 by phelps

[OlympicsFan 858]

9 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

1) the same Li that didn't even make the final over the 400m free and opted for the 200m free instead of the 1500m but swam a modest 1.57.5 in the heats? and that has a PB just below 16 mins?

and as I wrote, I don't remember Smith being so strong over the 1500m...she's definitely very good over the 800m, great over 400m, pretty good over the 200m free...but not exactly a medal contender over the longer distance...

as I wrote, with Wang, Kesely and Kohler we have the best possible starting field (except for Ledecky, of course)...

and now we have also Belmonte, even if she does look totally out of shape (and in fact she was originally eliminated over the distance)...

 

2) I agree on Ruck, but I think McKeown and Ledecky were in the pool 2 years ago...

 

3) not good at all for him...

hopefully, in the next few days he's going to improve his mood...

1) I think part of the reason why Smith isn't very good in the 1500 free is that until now it wasn't an olympic discipline. She might very well swim this event next year and then she will be among the favorites. The chinese girls are indeed not performing well here, but they are very young (4 years younger than Quadarella), so time is on their side. Also Pignatiello was missing here.

2) I think it is McKeon (McKeown is the girl who swims 100/200 back). Not sure how results from 2 years ago are important in this discussion ... ?

3) I think it is too late for him to turn it around here. Given his age and trajectory i would still consider him the favorite for next year in the 1500 free.

Edited July 23, 2019 by OlympicsFan

[phelps 7,678]

6 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

1) I think part of the reason why Smith isn't very good in the 1500 free is that until now it wasn't an olympic discipline. She might very well swim this event next year and then she will be among the favorites. The chinese girls are indeed not performing well here, but they are very young (4 years younger than Quadarella), so time is on their side. Also Pignatiello was missing here.

2) I think it is McKeon (McKeown is the girl who swims 100/200 back). Not sure how results from 2 years ago are important in this discussion ... ?

3) I think it is too late for him to turn it around here. Given his age and trajectory i would still consider him the favorite for next year in the 1500 free.

 

1) I forgot Pignatiello, but she still has to swim those times in a global event...it's not the same thing doing a great result in aminor meet and on the main stage...

for what concerns Smith, I think she's too important for the US 4*200m free relay to start focusing more on the 800m/1500m double rather than on the shorter distances...not all the women in the world can be medal contenders from 200m to 1500m at the same time...there's only 1 Ledecky, I hope...

 

2) yeah, it was a typo...

probably they're not, but I mean that she's already won a race like that, when she wasn't supposed to win...so, I don't take for granted that all the missing swimmers would beat Federica...I think she will eventually make the podium and that she would do it also with all the missing girls starting...

 

3) not saying that...I only hope he can at least change his mood, which would be important before taking any decision for the next campaign...

taking decisions when you're in a wrong mood, is always the best way to take wrong decisions...