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Roma 09


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Organization what? Argue your points..

Anyway, the medal count so far:

G S B Tot

1 CHINA 4 4 5 13

2 RUSSIA 4 1 0 5

3 AUSTRALIA 1 0 1 2

4 GERMANY 1 0 0 1

5 GB 1 0 0 1

6 MEXICO 1 0 0 1

7 SPAIN 0 3 0 3

8 USA 0 2 0 2

9 CANADA 0 1 2 3

10 GREECE 0 1 0 1

11 BRAZIL 0 0 1 1

12 ITALY 0 0 1 1

13 MALAYSIA 0 0 1 1

14 SOUTH AFRICA 0 0 1 1

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Well Rei, now that a German athlete has won a medal, they are quiet.

Not only Germany has won its first gold medal. The UK has won gold in the Mens 10m platform competition. This guy is only 15 (!) and looks like a 12 year old boy. Arent there any rules, which age a jumper must have? A Chinese system in the UK? I didnt fell comfortable watching him jumping.

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Well Rei, now that a German athlete has won a medal, they are quiet.

Not only Germany has won its first gold medal. The UK has won gold in the Mens 10m platform competition. This guy is only 15 (!) and looks like a 12 year old boy. Arent there any rules, which age a jumper must have? A Chinese system in the UK? I didnt fell comfortable watching him jumping.

A bit of an upset the UK winning this event. Has the UK ever won a diving medal before at the world champs or olympics?

Also I see Malaysia has won a medal! Great effort what event was that in

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A bit of an upset the UK winning this event. Has the UK ever won a diving medal before at the world champs or olympics?

Also I see Malaysia has won a medal! Great effort what event was that in

Malaysia's bronze came from Women's 10m Synchro :)

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About Syncro, Spain achieved impressive results at these WC by becoming the second power behind Russia.

Well, that could be seen already in the Beijing olympics, were Spain got silver in the two events contested. In Rome Spain is getting the silver in each routine, except in the combo, where the gold medal was achieved because Russia didn't compete. The Spanish team is protesting the results, especially the fact that they get the same marks as Russia in artistic impression even though they are more innovative (the technical superiority of Russia is not questioned). In the last years it has become a sport with pretty good media coverage in Spain. :D

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By the way...

Fina bans hi-tech suits from 2010

World swimming governing body Fina has decided to ban controversial non-textile swimsuits, but not until 2010.

The introduction of polyurethane suits in 2008 coincided with a marked improvement in swim times meaning world records have fallen dramatically.

However, with the ban not being implemented until January polyurethane suits will still be used at the Fina World Championships in Rome.

That is likely to see more records set which may not be broken for many years.

The return to common textile suits, men in shorts and women in suits above the knee and to the shoulder strap, would mean world records would be almost impossible to better in the short term.

The World Swimming Federation's decision at a conference in Rome came amid calls from a number of swimming federations for performance-enhancing suits to be banned.

However, the question of exactly how to define "allowable textiles" is unlikely to be determined until the next Fina bureau meeting in September or October.

"If what I have been told is spot on, it's a return to textiles. It's the only way to go," said British swimming's performance director Michael Scott.

Scott also backed the idea of putting an asterisk by world records that were achieved in polyurethane suits to distinguish them from records before and after their introduction.

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For the German team, it was a highly successful first day of competition in the pool.

It started with Paul Biedermann's European Record in the men's 400 m freestyle heats this morning.

Then, in the final, he even beat Ian Thorpe's old world record from the 2002 Commonwealth Games (the last one Ian Thorpe still had) by one hundredth and won gold.

That obviously gave Hendrik Feldwehr, a young breaststroke swimmer, such a boost that he surprisingly swam the third-best time in the men's 100 m breaststroke semi-final. Therefore, he has a realistic chance of winning a medal tomorrow.

And finally the women's 4x100 m freestyle in which Britta Steffen beat her own individual 100 m freestyle world record and the German team won silver, only narrowly beaten by the strong Dutch who set a new 4x100 m freestyle world record.

But one has to admit that much of that success is due to the new swimming suits the German swimmers have. They are better this time than the suits of much of the other swimmers. Last year in Beijing, it was the other way round -- which showed in the almost-desaster of the German swimmers (apart from Britta Steffen's two gold medals, of course).

Besides the athletes mentioned, also Federica Pellegrini (women's 400 m freestyle), Ariana Kukors (women's 200 m individual medley) and Sarah Sjöström (women's 100 m butterfly) set new world records.

That sums up to a total of six world records only today, on the first day of swimming competition. I hope that all those superb performances are really only due to good training and the new swimming suits.

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So whats the verdict on the championships? Rome looks great!

That's true. The light blue "look of the Games" is great and combined with the pines surrounding the swimming complex, it creates a very summerly, Mediterranean feel. That shows, in my opinion, that sometimes it's the better choice to have such major competitions staged in an outdoor pool. Although the swimmers might have a slightly different opinion, due to the scorching heat... ;)

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That's true. The light blue "look of the Games" is great and combined with the pines surrounding the swimming complex, it creates a very summerly, Mediterranean feel. That shows, in my opinion, that sometimes it's the better choice to have such major competitions staged in an outdoor pool. Although the swimmers might have a slightly different opinion, due to the scorching heat... ;)

Plus the main arguments for a roof are:

- for the spectators, there is the glare reflected from the water; and

- for the swimmers, when they are doing the backstroke and the sun is overhead or anywhere directly in line with the length of the pool, they are 'blinded' by the sun. (Although of course, when darkened goggles are used, this cuts down the direct glare into their eyes considerably.)

So overall, a roofed environment provides a environment more conducive to better competition, i.e., more world records WITHOUT the distraction of the sun.

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Besides the athletes mentioned, also Federica Pellegrini (women's 400 m freestyle), Ariana Kukors (women's 200 m individual medley) and Sarah Sjöström (women's 100 m butterfly) set new world records.

Sarah Sjöström is only 15 years old!!!

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Hm, any else than me who also think there are ridicolous many new WR?? Maybe I have missed someone but I count it to 5 new records today.

But I'm happy for Sweden's Sarah Sjöström who break Inge de Bruijns 9 years old World Record in 100m butterfly. Sarah is only 15 years old. The old record was 56.62 and the new one is 56.44.

Tomorrow I hope Sweden got our first gold and medal in these Championships!

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Hm, any else than me who also think there are ridicolous many new WR?? Maybe I have missed someone but I count it to 5 new records today.

But I'm happy for Sweden's Sarah Sjöström who break Inge de Bruijns 9 years old World Record in 100m butterfly. Sarah is only 15 years old. The old record was 56.62 and the new one is 56.44.

Tomorrow I hope Sweden got our first gold and medal in these Championships!

The old WR was 56.61 not 56.62. Sorry.

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Well, if nothing else Canada is doing well in Water Polo. Both the men's and women's teams are in the final 8. On the men's side, Canada defeated Germany by one goal in the prelims to avoid a hard match up against Montenegro in the playoffs (in Beijing, we lost 12-0 to Montenegro...), and we then defeated China in the Playoffs to reach the quarterfinals. I would be immensely surprised if we got to the semis, but a top 8 is already a vast improvement over the eleventh place we had in Beijing.

Our women's team, meanwhile, looks on fire. We are undefeated, having drawn Australia and smashed New Zealand, South Africa and Germany. Our next opponent is Hungary, which Canada defeated the last time they met. After the disappointment of missing Beijing, its entirely possible for Canada to medal in women's Water Polo this year (especially whit Olympic champion Netherlands looking like a shadow of its former self).

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Well Rei, now that a German athlete has won a medal, they are quiet.

Not only Germany has won its first gold medal. The UK has won gold in the Mens 10m platform competition. This guy is only 15 (!) and looks like a 12 year old boy. Arent there any rules, which age a jumper must have? A Chinese system in the UK? I didnt fell comfortable watching him jumping.

Did you have the same problem with him competing at the Olympics last year?

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Hm, any else than me who also think there are ridicolous many new WR?? Maybe I have missed someone but I count it to 5 new records today.

I can't see how any of these records can be allowed to stand given the fact that FINA is banning these new suits after the end of this year. They will distort the sport for years to come.

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I can't see how any of these records can be allowed to stand given the fact that FINA is banning these new suits after the end of this year. They will distort the sport for years to come.

Agreed - either ban them flat out immediately (in which case, I suppose, the teams will complain its disrupted their training yadda, yadda, yadda, or approve them (or rather, re-iterate their previous formal approval). The FINA backflips are now more the problem than the suits themselves.

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To some extent that's true, but when somebody improves their best time by six seconds to break a world record, as the guy who won the 400 freestyle did today, how can the average member of the public watching that take that to be anything other than the suit making an impact? Similarly, in the women's race, Rebecca Adlington swims nearly three seconds faster than the time she did to win gold in Beijing without one of these new suits and wins bronze. The two women in front of her both used the new suits. So who is the best at that distance? Does anyone know?

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