Euro Short Course 2005

[lane4]

Results of the first morning heats are underway and it is not looking too good for GB so far, either in terms of second swims or good PB's.

[lane4]

Also, I am struggling to work out why most of our swimmers have been entered without entry times and are thus stuck in outside lanes in the first heat?

[Katie]

Could it be that there are quite strict rules about entry time, i.e. how recently they must have been swum? I imagine some of our swimmers haven't swum short course in a while... I'm not sure, that could be it. :) Mark Foster made the semi of the 50 free by quite a long way, rather than in about 15th as he usually does!

[Haddock]

And if anyone has a digital satellite system pointed at the Hotbird satellites
a sports channel from Russia is showing the heats.

Lidl supermarkets were selling systems recently.

[lane4]

Could it be that there are quite strict rules about entry time, i.e. how recently they must have been swum?
I do think there was some regulation that you could only enter times that were in the European SwimRankings database. However, I would have thought our swimmers would have done enough decent swims at some point in the past year to have complied with that. But maybe not. Just shows us up badly again.

[Katie]

Is that a British Rec for Liam Tancock in the 50 back in the relay? 24.08? Speedy. Also, I think someone ought to explain to Caitlin McClatchey that it's fairly ridiculous to go over 2 seconds inside your entry time on 100 free!!! That girl is INCREDIBLE! Good swim from Mel Marshall in the 100 free as well, 54.1. Woo! :)

[Taxiandbank]

I do think there was some regulation that you could only enter times that were in the European SwimRankings database. However, I would have thought our swimmers would have done enough decent swims at some point in the past year to have complied with that. But maybe not. Just shows us up badly again.
Some of our (English based) swimmers have not swum short course in the past year. Which is why Keri-Ann went to the BUSA S.C. to get an 800 time.

[Ljunberg]

2 World records in the frist of the finals sessions, certainly not a slow meet by any means!!
Markus Rogan must have swam about 115m of his race under water, doesn't really tell us much about his backcrawl speed, although he has impressed long course. Does anyone else think that we should look at reducing the permitted distance off the wall in short course swimming? I'm a bit split on it, any other opinions?

[londoner62]

Bronze :king: for G.B. in the Medley relay and gold :king: :king: :king: for Foster in the 50 free from day 1

[lane4]

Some of our (English based) swimmers have not swum short course in the past year..
Good thinking? Or bad planning?

[lane4]

Bronze :king: for G.B. in the Medley relay and gold :king: :king: :king: for Foster in the 50 free from day 1
On the whole a fairly disappointing day for GB but Mark Foster saves our (short course) blushes yet again by delivering a gold medal and ensuring the relay wins bronze.

Interesting that we are entering the relays again this year having decided they were not part of our plans last year at this meet. Why the change? Was it a mistake to not enter them last year? Or are we making a mistake by entering them this year?

[londoner62]

Interesting that we are entering the relays again this year having decided they were not part of our plans last year at this meet. Why the change? Was it a mistake to not enter them last year? Or are we making a mistake by entering them this year?

Oh, if only we could get an official response to the questions! :p

[Bazza]

Pretty impressive first day. Unfortunately I missed it as I went to the gym and forgot to set the video.

Was just getting all impressed by the swims of Prilukov and Korzeniowski in the 400 free, then I see the next event and Markus Rogan breaks the world record. Cseh too! And in the medley relay I noticed a certain Oleg Lisogor swimming a ridiculous 25.7 for 50 breast!

For Britain, a mixed day with some good swims and some not so good. Obviously the highlights being Foster winning gold in a rather quick 21.27 and Tancock smashing the British record for 50 back with 24.06.

Roll on day two!

[lane4]

Roll on day two!

The big question for me is, will day 2 provide the first ever sub 4:00 400 IM from Mr Cseh?

[Barny]

Considering that we've just swam long course at Swansea - we should be swimming very fast short course a week later!

A few are........but the majority ???? Poor.

Remember it won't be Bill S fault! :cry:

[ringer]

Just "watched" Keri-Anne Payne in her 800 on the live timing facility on the Omega site. 8.24.04 is a big pb. ...6 seconds to put the pressure on the fastest heat which swims tonight. Looks like a HDW event.
the link to the site is

http://omegatiming.com/swimming

If you haven't got TV coverage this is the next best thing believe me. The races unfold before you with all 50m splits shown etc.

Only works when racing is actually taking place...really worth having a look!!!

[Katie]

I don't think it's actually a PB for Keri-Anne, as I think she went 8.23 in the world cup in Sydney a few years back, but it's definitely getting there! It's a shame she wasn't in the last heat. I will be interested to see what Caitlin produces tonight in the 800, I wouldn't be surprised if she went 10 seconds inside her entry time to be honest!

[Vincent]

Are there any pictures or videos available anywhere of the competiton?
V.

[lane4]

I don't think it's actually a PB for Keri-Anne, as I think she went 8.23 in the world cup in Sydney a few years back, but it's definitely getting there!

Yes we should remember that the GB entry times are not actual PB's in most cases as somehow GB swimmers didn't do any short course meets this year. A case for bringing back the SC Nationals perhaps?

[lane4]

http://omegatiming.com/swimming If you haven't got TV coverage this is the next best thing believe me!

It was half a decade late but finally ringer arrived in the 21st century.

;):p:devil:

[ringer]

It was half a decade late but finally ringer arrived in the 21st century.

;):p:devil:

Owww....that hurt.:p
Call me old fashioned or is it just old, crusty and decrepid but I haven't been at this swimming mullarkey for as long as some!!!!!! but I am getting somewhere with this new fangled technology at last.:cool: :p :cool:
Katie you are right about Keri-Anne's time: previous pb was 9.23.58 in 2002.
If you are right in your prediction for Caitlin McClatchey she could be in the minor medals shake-up.

[Haddock]

Are there any pictures or videos available anywhere of the competiton?
V.

Pictures at Gettyimages

www.gettyimages.com

Click on editorial then sport

[Katie]

8.23 I hope ringer!! Laure Manadou just broke WR in 800... 8.11!! Incredible!

[Ljunberg]

What an impressive session of swimming that was!!

Cseh, Manaudou, Magnini, Marin, Lisogor, Rupprath to name a few, all put in world class performances.

The World Short Course next year may turn out to be the fastest ever by a long way. Lets hope the Americans, Australians, and indeed the rest of the World rise to it. I've no doubt they will have taken note of whats been happening in Trieste.

[Bazza]

I would expect the world short course to be the fastest ever, but British swimmers won't be part of it unfortunately.

2 years ago at this meet GBR finished second in the medal table with 7 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze. Since then, it's all gone a bit pear shaped really.

[Mac]

i do actually think that we are in danger of being too negative about our performances at these champs. It is clear from some of the press reports that at least some of the team have not done much (if any) taper for this meet and are just swimming through it. That is their choice and with the Commonwealths not too far round the corner it is (in my mind anyway) a sensible approach to be taking. Our European neighbours are inevitably going to be less concerned with swimming fast in March and so are perhaps a bit more focused on this meet!

We are obviously not going to win as many medals as in the last Euro short course as a lot of the swimmers who won those medals have now retired (and theres another bunch of swimmers who are not at this meet for whatever reason eg Rebecca Cooke, Todd Cooper ... ). We can discuss/argue about the rights and wrongs of those retirements as much as we like but all we can really do is acknowledge where we are now and start from there.

The team over in Trieste is in large part pretty young and inexperienced and for those people the value of the meet is the experience which they will gain from it. That said, i think there have been some good swims from the British team - Foster, Kate Haywood (her 50 was good and her 100 semi of this evening was even better), Ros Brett, Jo Jackson (her 4.01 was quicker than the championship record but Manadou had a stormer!), David Davies (his 14.35 was not too shoddy even if he would have hoped to beat Prilukov), and Liam Tancock to name those that immediately come to mind.

Yes there are less medals and less finalists than last time but that is a probably a fair reflection of where we are at the moment and there is still some good swimming for us to applaud.

[aswim]

HI i think that the european shortcourse may be on sky though i dont know? Can anyone conform it being on tv (except on that russian channel mentioned earlier in this form)

[bred]

It's on Eurosport every night from about 4 apparently. Unfortunately I don't have a tele.

[NotVeryFast]

HI i think that the european shortcourse may be on sky though i dont know? Can anyone conform it being on tv (except on that russian channel mentioned earlier in this form)
Just to add to what Bred said, the 2nd session of each day is indeed on Eurosport, but you don't need Sky to see it, if you can receive Freeview and have a suitable set top box that can accept the viewing card, then you can pay to get Top Up TV, which includes Eurosport:
http://www.topuptv.com/

[aswim]

Thanks for the help aswim

[Bazza]

I think Mac makes some good points. We have had some very good swims from the 6 swimmers Mac mentioned, and I think he forgot Terri Dunning in particular. 5 British records and 5 medals so far is not terrible. I went on the British swimming website and from the archive articles it appeared to be 9 medals but only 3 British records last year.

If as we are led to believe the British team are focused on the Commonwealths and the rest of Europe are focused on Trieste, then we're actually doing pretty well. If.

[NotVeryFast]

If as we are led to believe the British team are focused on the Commonwealths and the rest of Europe are focused on Trieste, then we're actually doing pretty well. If.
As the World Short Course championships are in April next year, if the Commonwealth Games merits training straight through the European Short Course champs, surely the same is true of the World Short Course champs? But I suspect this is the reason for you emphasising the "If", i.e. you don't really believe our swimmers have been disadvantaged so much.

[lane4]

As the World Short Course championships are in April next year, if the Commonwealth Games merits training straight through the European Short Course champs, surely the same is true of the World Short Course champs? But I suspect this is the reason for you emphasising the "If", i.e. you don't really believe our swimmers have been disadvantaged so much.

I would be really keen to know which of the GB swimmers in Trieste are actually rested and which are not!? You have to remember that a LOT of people rested up for the Stage 3 Meet in Swansea as it was their last chance to make the Commonwealth team. So, any of those who rested for that and are in Trieste as well are most certainly rested up even more for this.

Chris Cook can be believed when he said he was in hard training as he had pre-qualified to the Commies and did not need to rest. Volume protagonists might question the nature of his hard phase if 45k is what he does in a week but it's not all about volume right, so I do not expect he is rested up for Trieste at all.

However, my main point is this, do not be kidding yourself that the GB team are all swimming through this meet and focussing on the Commy Games. I have heard it stated that European Long Course is the major focus for 2006 and NOT the Commonwealths - one of the reasons we are taking the biggest team possible to ELC and a small one to CG.

Nor should you kid yourself that ALL other countries have rested up for this meet. Some swimmers certainly will have, while others definitely won't, depending on their own personal circumstances and targets.

Regardless of all that, the very best swimmers tend to prove that they can do well at any time of the year, at any type of competition, in any phase of training. At the World Short Course in 2004, Aaron Piersol broke the 200 back world record having hardly swum at all since Athens. And many of the great swimmers seem to be able to go close to their best or even do their best despite not always fully tapering.

What is particularly interesting is that people like Manaudou, Korzeniowski, Rogan et al are medalists and produce their best on all stages. You never hear them making excuses for sub-standard performances that they are swimming through this meet and just focussing on the Olympics or something. They are at their best for Euro Short, Euro Long, World Short, World Long AND the Olympics! And with clever training, that's the way it should be!

[Curly]

Having ploughed through 19 pages of football, 2 pages of rugby, one of cycling and one of cricket, I finally found a couple of paragraphs on swimming.

From today's Times:
"Britain's Jeanne (sic) Jackson and David Davies had to settle for silver medals after they were beaten by record-breaking performances in the European Short Course Championships in Italy. Jackson was 4.33sec slower than France's Laure Manaudou, who broke the women's 400m freestyle world record in a time of 3min 56.79sec. Russia's Yuri Prilukov then set a new European mark of 14:27.12 in the men's 1,500m freestyle final, with Davies on 14:35.94".

No mention of British records or Jo recording the 4th fastest swim in history in this event. Is it any wonder that no one is interested in our sport with this sort of half-hearted, negative press? I think they were fantastic swims and can only bode well for the future for these 2 swimmers anyway.

[Martin-Y]

Secondly, deposit your brain in the nearest trash can, you won’t need it. All thought processes MUST be left to the ‘Pros’, that is what they are paid for and remember DON’T QUESTION ANYTHING they know what is best for you, just do as you’re told and you’ll be fine.

Hope this helps, good luck and enjoy the freebie.:)

Blob.
Is it just me that was disgusted by this quote. I have no idea who Barbie and Blob are but I assume Barbie is a talented swimmer and Blob a Coach.
The comment appears to me to be arrogant and insulting in the extreme. A swimmer has every right to ask a question and the coach should be ready and willing with the answer. To suggest she leaves her brain in the trash can.....unbelievable

[Martin-Y]

Unless of course Blob was being sarcastic in his "reference"

[Phil Tanner]

I think someone may have had a major irony by-pass event...

[Steve]

Unless of course Blob was being sarcastic in his "reference"
You said it! :)

[Martin-Y]

Do I need to apologise for being grumpy

[NotVeryFast]

Re Manaudou's amazing 400, has anyone else noticed how many strokes per length she takes? I just happened to count for a couple of lengths in her 400, and counted 11 entries of the first hand (or 22 strokes if you prefer to count that way, I always find it easier to just count the same hand entering). This struck me as a staggeringly high stroke count. So I went back to my Athens recordings and did some counting, all for the length from 300m-350m:
Thorpe : 16 strokes
Hackett : 17 strokes
Manaudou : 24 strokes
Jedrzejczak : 20 strokes

I then timed 20 of Manaudou's strokes, and they took approx 24 secs, so a stroke rate of 50 strokes per minute. Really quite remarkable that she keeps turning her arms over at such a high rate compared to everyone else for 4 minutes.

[Ljunberg]

I noticed that too. Also noticed she doesn't use her legs much, hence the need for her stroke rate i'd imagine.

[lane4]

I noticed that too. Also noticed she doesn't use her legs much, hence the need for her stroke rate i'd imagine.
She does not rate high because her legs are weak, it is a deliberate decision to minimise leg use and focus on a fast rate that many female distance swimmers employ.

[fastest1]

Foster - 21.21 first leg of 4 x 50 free relay.........wow!

And a new British Record for Davenport in 200 free - 1.44.06. Very impressive.

[NotVeryFast]

She does not rate high because her legs are weak, it is a deliberate decision to minimise leg use and focus on a fast rate that many female distance swimmers employ.
The question that interests me is whether more men should be trying this style. In the British all-time rankings database, only 43 men have times faster than her 400m swim. I've been trying to develop my own swimming along the lines of the top men, with a propulsive six beat kick and low stroke count, which basically reduces the problem to one of developing sufficient muscle power and endurance to maintain that stroke count length after length with a sufficiently high number of strokes per second. But seeing as how most of us would be ecstatic to swim sub 4 mins for 400 free, it does make you wonder if more people could benefit from using a higher stroke rate / stroke count.

[bred]

I wouldn't consider 24 strokes a 50 a lot anyway. :/

Thorpe may be 6'7" but 16 strokes is about half what I do! :cry:

[NotVeryFast]

I wouldn't consider 24 strokes a 50 a lot anyway. :/

Thorpe may be 6'7" but 16 strokes is about half what I do! :cry:
It's 24 complete strokes, though, so some might call that 48 strokes, which might be why you're thinking you take twice as many as Thorpe?

[bred]

Haha, I think I just had a stupid moment!
Why didn't I realise that the first time, wanders off...
:D
I'd take a few more in a race situation though I imagine.

[NotVeryFast]

And another observation - in the 100 IM races that I saw, unless my eyes deceived me, people were doing a normal backstroke turn on the back to breast transition, i.e. turning onto the front before touching. Unfortunately I failed in my attempt to record today's broadcast so I can't rewatch it, but if anyone did record the mens 100 IM final today, I'd be very interested to know if a more careful study shows that they did indeed turn onto the front before touching. I've said before that I believe this is permitted according to FINA rules, though not according to some other rules such as the USA swimming rules which explicitly forbid this.

[Linny]

And another observation - in the 100 IM races that I saw, unless my eyes deceived me, people were doing a normal backstroke turn on the back to breast transition, i.e. turning onto the front before touching. Unfortunately I failed in my attempt to record today's broadcast so I can't rewatch it, but if anyone did record the mens 100 IM final today, I'd be very interested to know if a more careful study shows that they did indeed turn onto the front before touching. I've said before that I believe this is permitted according to FINA rules, though not according to some other rules such as the USA swimming rules which explicitly forbid this.It was difficult to see even slowing down because we were seeing it from the side. The rules are pretty clear as below -SW 9.3 Each section must be finished in accordance with the rule which applies to the style concernedso being as the judges were right on top we can only assume that the swimmers didn't turn onto their fronts or past 89 degrees to their backs at least in order to finish the backstroke leg legally.
I think that what you were observing was an arm being thrown across the chest so that the hand touches the wall as though the swimmer was on their front but their shoulders haven't turned right through to 90 degrees - like if you are swimming corkscrew - well kind of. The first time I saw this type of turn was at the GB masters earlier this year. I was judging in the sessions I didn't swim and this guy came up to me during the warm up and asked if I could check out his turn. I had him do it 5 times before I was sure his shoulder wasn't going too far over because I hadn't seen anything like it and it caught me by surprise every time. Of course in a race I would have given him the benefit of the doubt anyway but it was good to be able to get a proper look. It was certainly fast and efficient, he had learnt it in South Africa, and as evidenced today there are quite a lot of folk doing it.

[Gina]

Davenport went a shade faster in the 200 free in 1.43.93 (he is Mr. October in the swimming calender :D )

Teri Dunning did very good in the 100 fly. What is the british record? 58.58 is pretty fast.

[Steve]

And another observation - in the 100 IM races that I saw, unless my eyes deceived me, people were doing a normal backstroke turn on the back to breast transition, i.e. turning onto the front before touching. Unfortunately I failed in my attempt to record today's broadcast so I can't rewatch it, but if anyone did record the mens 100 IM final today, I'd be very interested to know if a more careful study shows that they did indeed turn onto the front before touching. I've said before that I believe this is permitted according to FINA rules, though not according to some other rules such as the USA swimming rules which explicitly forbid this.
The trick is, as linny says, to touch the wall before your shoudlers go past 90 degrees. Once you've done this you can turn onto your front and do a tumble turn. The reason that it looks like a backstorke turn at full speed is that they generally touch with teh top hand, whereas those doing a more usual push turn would touch with the lower hand. Phelps and Coventry are the best exponents of this turn that I've seen and there's an underwater video of Coventry performing it at the 2005 Worlds on www.swim.ee (http://www.swim.ee/videos/Montreal2005/index_medley.html), where you can see exactly what she's doing.

[NotVeryFast]

The trick is, as linny says, to touch the wall before your shoudlers go past 90 degrees. Once you've done this you can turn onto your front and do a tumble turn. The reason that it looks like a backstorke turn at full speed is that they generally touch with teh top hand, whereas those doing a more usual push turn would touch with the lower hand. Phelps and Coventry are the best exponents of this turn that I've seen and there's an underwater video of Coventry performing it at the 2005 Worlds on www.swim.ee (http://www.swim.ee/videos/Montreal2005/index_medley.html), where you can see exactly what she's doing.
Thanks - got the video from swim.ee. It looks very illegal to me. Firstly, you aren't actually allowed to reach 90 degrees, and she looks to be at least vertical, arguably past vertical at some points (though this wouldn't be illegal as part of the turn under my interpretation of the FINA rules). Perhaps a bigger problem is that she doesn't cross her feet before placing them on the wall, so has to rotate the legs around after pushing off, which a Masters swimmer on this forum who shall remain nameless has been disqualified for on more than one occasion in breaststroke races. However, having said that, I can't see where in the FINA rules that is forbidden either, provided you only do it before you commence the first arm pull after each turn.

[Linny]

Thanks - got the video from swim.ee. It looks very illegal to me. Firstly, you aren't actually allowed to reach 90 degrees, and she looks to be at least vertical, arguably past vertical at some points (though this wouldn't be illegal as part of the turn under my interpretation of the FINA rules). Perhaps a bigger problem is that she doesn't cross her feet before placing them on the wall, so has to rotate the legs around after pushing off, which a Masters swimmer on this forum who shall remain nameless has been disqualified for on more than one occasion in breaststroke races. However, having said that, I can't see where in the FINA rules that is forbidden either, provided you only do it before you commence the first arm pull after each turn.As soon as you touch you are allowed past 90 degrees. I don't see what relevance the position or alignment of someone's feet is when they push off to start breaststroke. Having said that I am waiting for some clarification from our national STO committee on a similar question because of inconsistency of application. To my mind in many ways it doesn't matter what the interpretation is provided we are all singing the same song.

[Katie]

Terri Dunning and Ros Brett broke the British Record 3 (4?) times between them if I'm right! Impressive stuff! Hannah Miley's 4.37.1 400 IM is incredible, but what a young final! 4 girls born in 1989 I think... maybe more I can't remember. The silver medal winning swimmer came back in 1.00 on the freestyle, woah!!

[selkie]

She does not rate high because her legs are weak, it is a deliberate decision to minimise leg use and focus on a fast rate that many female distance swimmers employ.

I don't think I'd call Laure's legs weak. She's far too good of a backstroker to call her that since back relies much more on the kick than free does. I'd say small kicker compared to Otylia's big kick.

And ever since Janet Evans, there have been a pretty high number of high cadence/high stroke count elite distance women on the world stage. Brooke Bennett would be at 51 strokes/per 50m (25.5 cycles) in the middle of an 800. Hannah Stockbauer, Diana Munz, and Ai Shibata were also all very high turnover/very high stroke count swimmers.

On the men's side, Dave Davies is high stroke count/high cadence for a guy these days. Put him next to Hackett and Larsen Jensen, and it's pretty obvious. And it's a way of swimming that obviously works very well for him.

Speaking of Janet Evans, Kate Ziegler took down her American record in the 1000 yard free this weekend with a 9:24.80. (Evans went 9:25) As a fan, I'm hoping that Laure comes into Short Course Worlds without that chip on her shoulder she sometimes seems to have and doesn't duck competing with Kate in the 800m free because that race between the two of them could be something really special.

[icelolly]

GO GO Ross Davenport!
very emotional club champs presentation night yesterday at his home club.
What an inspiration to the younger swimmers. British swimming may not be where we would all like it to be right now but every great swim for our team there will filter back to club level and if even one child is inspired to try harder then thats a sucess surley. I know Belper Marlins were on a high last night!!

[lane4]

I don't think I'd call Laure's legs weak.
I certainly did not mean to suggest her legs were weak. I agree with what you are saying. My comment was related to the words of Ljunberg who had suggested she rated highly to compensate for her legs. I was suggesting she rates highly irrespective of her legs.

[Ljunberg]

My comment was related to the words of Ljunberg who had suggested she rated highly to compensate for her legs. I was suggesting she rates highly irrespective of her legs.

I thought her high rate was to compensate for her lack of leg kick. If she were to kick more, and maintain a high rate, wouldn't she get tired a lot quicker?

[NotVeryFast]

I thought her high rate was to compensate for her lack of leg kick. If she were to kick more, and maintain a high rate, wouldn't she get tired a lot quicker?
The impression I get is that she uses the leg kick (2 beat crossover as far as I can tell) primarily to counterbalance her body, as an essential part of supporting such a vigorous upper body action. I think L4's point is that this is a conscious choice, rather than something she is forced to do due to having weak legs. Whilst quite a few other swimmers use a similar stroke rate, Laure's style does look quite individual to me, particularly when you see her from underwater.

[happySwimmer]

GO GO Ross Davenport!
I know Belper Marlins were on a high last night!!

So were City of Derby Masters! We heard the great news in the changing rooms after training . Even for us wrinklies it's motivating.

[Bazza]

This thread seems to have drifted away from the subject of the euro short course a bit, and I think the British teams performance on day 4 is worthy of a mention - we picked up 3 more medals and could have been more, but there were some very encouraging swims from the likes of Davenport, Dunning, Brett, Gilchrist, Lee, Miley and Haywood (in so much as she had 3 awful turns and still went 67.0).

I think overall we had a reasonable championships, some swimmers showed they have the potential to compete at this level and higher and hopefully we can turn that into some good performances at Commies, worlds and European longcourse.

[Woodward]

Stroke cadence for distance swimmers is a function of size more than anything else.

[NotVeryFast]

Re your quote from Bill:

"Many of our swimmers are in full training right through the meet and many haven't shaved down to give themselves that racing edge. The majority of nations here don't have that early meet next year to contend with."

Can anyone explain how shaving down for the Euro Short Course would adversely affect performance at the Commonwealth Games?

[lane4]

As Bazza says, it was a fairly successful finish to the meet for GB and there was certainly cause for optimism in some quarters. I was particularly impressed with Davenport's swim. The medal tally would have been halved had Foster not been there though, and the medal tally could have been higher if some people (SparkieSweetie perhaps!?) had risen to the occasion in finals.

What about you Barbie, did you rise to the occasion?

[Haddock]

Bill Sweetenham and British swimming remind me of the Scottish national football team.
They are always planning for the next big win. Planning for something that will never happen.
It is about time British swimming put all the talk to rest and just did it.