First impressions and blistering marks at London Aquatics Centre
Many outstanding swimmers competed in the prelim heats of the British Nationals and the top 8 were seeded directly to an international finals session at the Olympic test event in the London Aquatics Centre, the venue for the 2012 Olympic Games. Most of these athletes came to see the venue and to familiarize themselves with the iconic new venue that will be the highlight of most of their careers.
Day 1, Saturday (March 3, 2012) - World record holder Paul Biederman (GER) easily won the 400m freestyle event in a time of 3:50.95 easily defeating Velimir Stjepanov (SRB) who finished 2.29 seconds back. Biederman's time is the 18th fastest of the new year and a far cry from the 3:44.14 time he posted at the FINA World Championships last summer in Shanghai. Veteran Olympian Markus Rogan (AUT), currently training in the USA with Coach David Salo swam to a first place finish in the 400m IM, about 14 seconds off the world record set by Michael Phelps in this event. Ryan Lochte (USA) won the world championships last summer in a time of 4:07.13 but has yet to swim the event in 2012. Rogan's prelim time of 4:17.18 was faster than his finals posting of 4:17.60 and he now has the 9th & 10th fastest performances of the new year. German's Hendik Feldwehr looked smooth in his race against LI Xiayan of China cruising to a 1:00.48 and collecting his FINA A qualifying time. His swim is the 4th fastest of the year, but some distance from Alex Dale Oen's (NOR) fastest time of 2011, 58.71 set at the summer world championships.
In the women's events South Africa's Kathryn Meaklim was an easy winner over Barbara Zavadova (CZE) in the 400m individual medley contest. Meaklim swam a half second faster than her morning prelim swim, also faster than the FINA A qualifying time covering the distance in 4:39.98. Zavadova was 1.78 seconds behind, but some distance from her 3:36.96 posting in Shanghai. The best swim of the first days finals was from Swedish swimmer Sara Sjoestroem who beat Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak by 2.21 seconds stopping the clock at 56.79. Sjoestroem was just .73 off her world record performance set at the 2009 FINA World's in Rome. Last summer she posted the world's 9th fastest performance swimming a half second faster at the Shanghai world championships, 57.29. Her time in London is the fastest swum in 2012.
Day 2, Sunday (March 4, 2012) - Mie Nielsen (DEN) just squeaked by Ekaterina Avramova (BUL) in the women's 100m backstroke event in a winning time of 1:01.04. Velimir Stjepanovic (SRB) was third after the first 50m but shifted into another gear to sneak past Wu Peng in the men's 200m freestyle event to post a 1:49.32 winning time.
Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) who led the first lap by over a second was able to hang on at the finish defeating Sweden's Jennie Johansson by .02 in the women's 100m breaststroke.