US wins 8 out of 10 events at Pan Pacific Swimming Championship
The US won 8 out of 10 events at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships held in Irvine, California from 18th-22nd August. Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps played a significant role in the US team’s dominant performance.
Only two international swimmers, Park Tae-Hwan from South Korea and Felipe Silva from Brazil managed to win gold medals apart from the US athletes. Both of them bagged these golds in 400 meters freestyle and 50 meters breaststroke events respectively. The third gold medal was won by Phelps in the 100 meters butterfly stroke and later on he and Lochte led their team to win another gold medal in the 4 into 100 meters freestyle relay. On the other hand, Lochte won the Championship’s fourth gold medal in the 200 meters breaststroke event. The swimming world champion, Lochte finished the 100 meters race in 1 minute and 54.12 seconds. He held off the Japanese swimmer Ryosuke Irie in the fastest time this year. After winning the race, Lochte said that he felt very strong in the pool especially in the first 50 meters.
Another American athlete Tyler Clary finished second with a time of 1 minute and 54.90 seconds while Irie finished in the third place with 1 minute and 55.21 seconds. Phelps won the 100 meters butterfly race in a time that was less than the fastest time set by him during the US Swimming Championship in the beginning of this month. He finished the race in 50.86 seconds, leaving behind Tyler McGill and Japan’s Takuro Fujii. The former finished the race in 51.85 seconds while the latter managed the meet in 52.12 seconds. Despite his win, Phelps told reporters that he was not satisfied with the way he swam in this event, especially the first 50 meters of the race. He said that he needs to improve his pace during these first 50 meters. However, the Olympic champion made up for any shortcomings during the butterfly leg of the relay medley in which he finished the 100 meters in 48.13 seconds.
US swimming team’s other members in the relay medley included Ryan Lochte, Jason Lezak and Nathan Adrian. The race was completed by the US athletes in a time of 3 minutes and 11.74 seconds. The Australian team finished second with a time of 3 minutes and 14.30 seconds while the South African team finished in the third place in a time of 3 minutes and 15.93 seconds. Phelps added that all the races including the preliminaries and the finals of this event were a crucial fight between the swimmers. The US athletes selected from this event would most probably represent their country in the 2011 World Championship.
Meanwhile, the South Korean champion Park has bigger plans this year. He will be participating in the Asian Games scheduled to take place in November in China. Park told media that he was confident about his performance especially after winning the 400 meters freestyle. He strongly held back the Canadian swimmer Ryan Cochrane in the final 100 meters and won the race in 3 minutes and 44.73 seconds. In this particular meet, the 1500 meters freestyle winner Cochrane finished in the second place with 3 minutes and 46.78 seconds while the Chinese swimmer Zhang Lin finished third with 3 minutes and 46.91 seconds.
Except Park’s victory in the 400 meters freestyle and Silva in the 50 meters breaststroke, all the other events were won by the American athletes.
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