World Championships.

sock puppet

The Irish team are having a great meet so far. Barry Murphy has qualified 8th fastest for the semifinals of the 50m breaststroke this evening. He even set a championship record in his heat, but it was broken later on.

Despite the controversy over suits i think it's been a great championship. The women's and men's 400m final have been the highlights so far imo. Though the men's 4x100 free relay was another good one with France surprisingly beaten to third. I wonder how long some of these records will stand with a return to textile suits.

Marvinthefish

Anyone know what suit Barry Murphy is wearing? I keep meaning to get up early and watch the heats! I remember reading somewhere that Bree was definitely gonna have one of these suits with super-powers.

RHunce

whats wrong with the suits? im not big into swimming myself but i was watching it and i heard one or two comments about them, what exactly is up?

sock puppet

Marvinthefish wrote: »

Anyone know what suit Barry Murphy is wearing? I keep meaning to get up early and watch the heats! I remember reading somewhere that Bree was definitely gonna have one of these suits with super-powers.

I think it's a Jaked. Almost every there swimmer is wearing one of the new suits. Even the swimmers from the developing nations. Phelps is still wearing a speedo suit though. But that's because of his sponsorship deal.

RHunce wrote: »

whats wrong with the suits? im not big into swimming myself but i was watching it and i heard one or two comments about them, what exactly is up?

Up until 2008 swimming suits were made of textiles so water permeatted through. Then Speedo released a suit which was coated in polyurethane which didn't let water through and also trapped air, giving greater buoyancy. This year there is a range of new suits made entirely out of polyurethane. At first FINA banned the newer ones but then approved them for Rome.

While everyone has access to these suits it's not the direction most people want the sport heading in. There are also problems for swimmers like Phelps who is sponsored by Speedo. If he switches suit he could lose out on his deal, but if he stays then he is competing at a disadvantage.

The whole thing is a total mess. FINA have announced that in 2010 all polyurethane suits be banned and we will go back to 2007 suit standards. It's expected that the world records set in Rome will therefore last for quite a while.

walshb

I have alwas been a fan of swimming, but lately I am being a wee bit discouraged as now and recently, there does not seem to be anything special
about a world record. They are being broken far too easily. Still fantastic athletes and swimmers, just the records are dropping to easy and in some cases, the record can go twice or three times in one event from the QF stage to the final.

Everything from suits to water depth to extra lanes is all making records more attainable.

jimmay!

how does water depth and more lanes make any difference?

gavkm27

jimmay! wrote: »

how does water depth and more lanes make any difference?

When the swimmers dive in,they create energy that travels downward intitially from the dive,rebounds off the pool bottom and hits them again,causing disruption to stroke and foward motion.
With the lanes same sort of thing ,swimmers in the center lanes have the advantage as long as they are ahead,their energy waves travel outward toward the outside lanes,the lane ropes are designed to absorb some of this energy and all olympic pools have 10 lanes to help dissapate that enegery more before it hits the side walls and rebounds like the bottom.
Something to that effect,but i'm no scientist

sock puppet

jimmay! wrote: »

how does water depth and more lanes make any difference?

The deeper the pool the less waves there are. More lanes stop waves bouncing off the walls. It only really helps the swimmers in the edge lanes. But pool technology has gone pretty much gone as far as it can, though maybe not I'm no engineer. It's not a bad thing either. You wouldn't want to see runners racing on a dirt track in Berlin.

edit: oops didn't see gavs post.

jimmay!

Thanks i can see where your coming from with the width of the pool but wave breakers lane ropes kind of eliminate that to a degree. Pools are going to go much deeper anyway because your couldn't swim in much deeper then 3m at the most you'd feel like your going nowhere. The shallower the pool the faster you feel like your swimming but can't be shallow as you can't go underwater very far off the walls then

Marvinthefish

Two Irish swimmers go under 50 seconds for 100m freestyle: Barry Murphy at 49.76 and Ryan Harrison at 49.49 in the heats in Rome. link Both under the old record (49.98) set by Barry in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday. Pity they came 51st and 44th respectively, but brilliant swims nonetheless.

sock puppet

It's expected that in 2010 all bodysuits, even textiles, will be banned now and swimmers must wear knee-length jammers.

Crap! My racing suit is useless now:mad:

Gyalist

Surely nude swimming is the way to go. Swimming will become the most popular Olympic sport for spectators.

Marvinthefish

Hmmm don't know about nude swimming, but topless swimming definitely!

sock puppet:

...and swimmers must wear knee-length jammers

sock puppet

Marvinthefish wrote: »

Hmmm don't know about nude swimming, but topless swimming definitely!

Sadly I failed to mention that women can wear suits extending to their shoulders.:( Too bad. With Pellegrini and Rice around it's the perfect time for FINA to capitalise

SarahBM

I watched all the swimming for the Olympics and was so impressed with the standards that they were setting. Records were being broken but there was loads of excitment because some of those records had stood for years!
The the world champs came on and FINA said "Ya sure those cool new suits that were banned before are ok now!" and the records were dropping like anvils in a loony toons show!! It was nuts! World records being smashed in the heats! never seen before!!
Im not a big fan of Phelps but far play to the guy, it took him something like 4 years to shave a few seconds off his personal best. Biedermann shaved 7!! Seconds of his personal best in one swim with the 100% Polyurethene suit! For gods sake like!!!
I heard the sugesstion that all the records broken in the Roma 09 championchips with the new polyurethene suits should be astrixed so that when they bring back the textile suits, we will know which records were broken in new suits or normal suits.
FINA really have to get their act together!