svimjing.com

For some reason a quite popular photo on Flickr, this one featuring a victorious men’s relay team from Havnar Svimjifelag in Tórshavn, on top of the medal podium in Klaksvík, Faroe Islands. SuSvim silver and Ægir bronze, the only three teams around here with a pool longer than 16 meters.

Rich & Laura Howard were celebrating their 20th Wedding Anniversary with a diving trip in La Paz, Mexico, when a pod of about 20 killer whales decided to chase their boat. Via 7News

Read for instance SwimmingWorld and see Arena’s press release

In February 2013, FINA, the international governing body for all aquatic sports, requested compliance information regarding one of the Arena POWERSKIN Carbon-Pro racing suits (woman full body open back – FINA approval code AR220993), purchased during routine testing.

Arena launched a quality control investigation, that suggested that a change in the manufacturing process, following a significant surge of market demand, may have caused an unintended reduction of the permeability to air of some of the racing suits produced between the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013.

Therefore, as of 7th of May 2013, the following Arena POWERSKIN Carbon-Pro models are not valid anymore for FINA sanctioned events:

• Women’s full body open back (FINA approval code AR220993)
• Women’s full body closed back (approval code AR220994)
• Men’s jammer (approval code AR141364).

Arena has apparently instituted a recall and replacement program, see SwimmingWorld: ”Consumers in possession of a current model POWERSKIN Carbon Pro with proof of purchase may receive, at no cost, the new generation POWERSKIN Carbon Pro Mark 2.” Full details regarding this program can be found at support.arenapowerskin.com.

Thursday May 9th to Saturday 11th, the 2013 Faroese Swimming Championships will be held in Tórshavn, still short course as we have no 50 meter pool yet. The main attraction is of course Pál Joensen, who is closing in on his 100th national medal, though not expected to take gold in all the events that he will be participating in. See competition details and results etc here on livetiming.se, the finals will be broadcasted live on national TV, with me as (Faroese speaking) commentator.

An interesting angle that Bartal chose here, Haljand on the start block filming Faroese swimmer Astrið Foldarskarð’s finish while Holger hauls the sideways filming cart and Birita Debes gets ready for her swim. That fly swatter thing outside is one of the four new light towers of our national football stadium that can be seen everywhere in town, yay.

Read The Age

Denis Cotterell has warned against too much expectation being placed on Jordan Harrison, with the veteran coach who guided Grand Hackett to dual 1500-metre freestyle Olympic gold medals saying he was as surprised as anyone with his protege’s impressive swim at the national titles on Friday night.

Harrison, 17, turned back the clock in the 1500 when he swam 14 minutes, 51.02 seconds – faster than the then-world record that Hackett set at the same age at the 1998 world titles. [...]

”Here’s a kid who I didn’t consider [had] the same potential as Grant but has beaten the time,” Cotterell said. ”I’m really surprised so it probably underlines how much of a poor judge I am.

”I’d love to [think he could emulate Hackett] but it’s not a given. He’s already made a big jump … [and] there’s always a big jump at that age. His jump is down to a position where you can’t expect another big jump from there, and he doesn’t really.”

Read Illawarra Mercury

Vivienne Moxham-Hall would love to compete in the 2013 South Coast Winter Swimming Championship, but her hopes have been frozen due to a rule that excludes women.

Women are not allowed to take part in the competition because six of the eight clubs in the South Coast Winter Swimming Association have voted against women becoming members.

President Bill Steele said most of the association’s eight clubs “just weren’t interested” in expanding to include women.

Our very own ‘pocket rocket’ Kristina Elin Thomsen from Suðuroyar Svimjifelag taking off from a start block in Tórshavn, yesterday. Professor Rein Haljand filming the start with a tripod camera while son Holger hauls the overwater/underwater camera cart. And in blue, coach Jón Bjarnason getting his own version too with an iPhone :-)

“Dartmouth swimmer Nejc Zupan ’14 qualified for three events—the 200 IM, the 100 breastroke and the 200 breastroke—at the 2013 NCAA Championship from March 28-30 in Indianapolis, Ind. After capturing three Ivy League titles and setting three Ivy League records, he was named Swimmer of the Meet at the 2013 Ivy League Championship in early March. A double major in economics and mathematics, the Slovenian is also a top student who has performed undergraduate research with a mathematics professor and a Tuck Business School professor. He was filmed training in the endless pool at Dartmouth’s Karl Michael Pool with a GoPro.”

See Nothing To Do With Arbroath

A large animal carcass that washed up on a Bay of Plenty beach left some locals wondering if they’d come across the remains of a prehistoric animal. The carcass was discovered by a group of quad bikers on a beach about 5km east of Pukehina Beach, New Zealand.

The photos were forwarded to marine mammal expert Anton van Helden, who said the carcass was that of an orca. He was able to identify it because orcas have a distinctive ‘flipper’. “It’s hard to say how it died,” he says.

2013 EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships – Adelaide

Read for instance Asia One

Australian Olympians must cooperate fully with their national anti-doping agency over the use of banned substances or face exclusion from the Games, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said on Saturday.

In the midst of a doping probe into rugby league and Australian rules teams that has rocked two of the country’s most popular sports, the AOC has added the new clauses to tighten up their anti-doping code.

Athletes and officials will be obliged to cooperate with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) even if “to do so might tend to incriminate or expose them to a penalty”. “To be clear, failure to co-operate with and assist ASADA, in every way, can result in an athlete or official being ruled out of an Olympic team,” AOC President John Coates said in a news release. [...]

Coates told the AOC’s AGM that while ASADA’s current probe is focused on National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football League (AFL), it would be “naive” to think there have not been Olympians who have used banned substances.

Italy’s Ilaria Bianchi being congratulated at the FINA 2012 World Swimming World Cup leg in Berlin, Germany, for winning the women’s 100 meter butterfly in 56.86. Sweden’s Louise Hansson won silver in 57.55 and the Netherlands’ Inge Dekker bronze in 57.65. See the result list here.

A really nice video on a very serious subject. Swimming is not just a sport.

Read The Age

The tough love required after the London Olympics has honed Australia into a leaner, meaner swimming outfit for July’s world titles in Barcelona, new team boss Michael Scott believes. [...]

In one of his last acts before he resigned, ex-head coach Leigh Nugent set the qualifying standard at times required to reach 2011 world championship finals.

It ensured a 36-strong team was unveiled on Friday night – 10 less than the much maligned London outfit which produced just one gold, their worst Olympic pool tally in 20 years.

And it was the smallest since a 38-strong 2005 worlds squad was named for Montreal.

“I would be confident in saying the individual time standards to make this team were probably the toughest in the world,” Scott said. [...]

They will travel to Canberra on Saturday for a week-long camp where a leadership group will be selected.

Scott said ex-skipper Grant Hackett would be involved.

See wtok.com

Dirty water is being blamed for causing a murky mess at a Meridian swim club. The owner of what use to be Briarwood Country Club, estimates that between three and four inches of mud poured into the 10 foot deep pool there when workers attempted to fill it. Although this is a concern, he says the bigger problem is that residents and businesses in that area are often left to pay for brown water.

//

See The Huffington Post

Not sure if you’ve heard, but Ryan Lochte wants to be the next Kim Kardashian. It’s not clear that his dream has come true — yet — but with the premiere of his reality TV show “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” in April, he’s certainly working on it.

In another step towards the realization of said dream, Lochte dropped by fellow E! star Chelsea Handler’s show Thursday night, and the result was pretty incredible. While it’s always hard to choose our favorite lines from a Lochte interview – there are so many memorable utterances to choose from

Three weeks ago, former Scottish international swimmer and now head coach of the Fife Performance Swimming Squad John Dougall experienced acute stomach pain, and called 999 for an ambulance on the verge of collapse. Read for instance Fife Today, The Scottish Sun, The Courier and the Daily Record

“They asked me the usual questions and basically asked if I had been drinking. I told them no, none of that and explained I lived on my own, that I couldn’t move. I needed help, I was in a really bad way but they said my symptoms wouldn’t warrant any help.”

According to John, they advised NHS 24 would call back within two hours and when he stressed he was “in agony” the call handler replied: “but you are able to speak to us”.

An hour later in a call with NHS 24, he was advised to take some painkillers.

John said: “I told them this was starting to scare me now. There‘s sweat pouring from me and burning coming from my chest and abdomen. I pleaded for an ambulance but they said they would get a nurse to ring me in the next couple of hours to go through treatment options with me.”

Desperate, John crawled to his front door where neighbours happened to be passing.

Horrified, they immediately rang 999 but were refused assistance.

Turned out he had a ruptured intestine and was heavily septic. His team did well though at the following Scottish Nationals, despite of their coach being confined to a hospital bed. Read for instance Fife Direct

Germany’s Steffen Deibler enjoying the sun in Hamburg, en route to a two-week training camp with hopefully even better weather in Sardinia. Laying the foundation for Barcelona 2013, and promising to try to post from Sardinia also. Yay!

He broke the German 100 butterfly record with a 51.19 at the 2013 German National Championships recently, world’s best time this year that would have won him gold in London.

Via Belfast Telegraph