World/Regional Swimmers of the Year: Pacific Rim Swimmers of the Year

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 30. TODAY, Swimming World announces the 2010 Pacific Rim Swimmers of the Year. Australia's Alicia Coutts and Japan's Kosuke Kitajima earned the top honors in the region from the voting panel.

Coutts became the fifth different Australian female to win the award in the past five years (Leisel Jones (2005-06), Libby Lenton (2007), Stephanie Rice (2008), Jessicah Schipper (2009), Coutts (2010)), showing a remarkable depth within the sport in that nation. Coutts did so with some strong swimming at the Commonwealth Games, including the first textile swim under Wu Yanyan's previous drug-tainted world record in the 200 IM.

FEMALE
1. ALICIA COUTTS, Australia
2. Emily Seebohm, Australia
3. Leisel Jones, Australia
4. Jiao Liuyang, China
5. Aya Terakawa, Japan/Gao Chang, China

Kitajima proved just how dominant he can be in the breaststroke discipline when he's firing on all cylinders at the Pan Pacific Championships. He swept the 100 and 200 breast in Irvine, while posting textile bests in the process. He clocked a 59.04 in 100 breast qualifying, while winning the 200 in 2:08.36. This is Kitajima's fourth win in the category (2003, 2007, 2008, 2010).

MALE
1. KOSUKE KITAJIMA, Japan
2. Tae Hwan Park, Korea
3. Geoff Huegill, Australia
4. Sun Yang, China
5. Brenton Rickard, Australia

Of special note, the World/Regional Swimmers of the Year were chosen prior to the Asian Games due to the production schedule. Swims from that meet were not included in the balloting process.

Special thanks to the voting panelists for volunteering their time to be part of the selection:

ASIA: Hideki Mochizuki, writer for Japanese Swimming Magazine and Swimming World Japanese correspondent. AUSTRALIA: Nicole Jeffery, senior sportswriter for The Australian; Ian Hanson, owner of the Hanson Media Group; Ron McKeon, president of the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association. CENTRAL EUROPE: Camillo Cametti, editor of Nuoto; EASTERN EUROPE: Norbert Agh, Swimming World European correspondent from Hungary; Ivan Tsanov, editor of Bulswim.info in Bulgaria. MIDDLE EAST: Buky Chass, swimming commentator for Israeli TV and former national technical director. NORTH AFRICA: Chaker Belhadj, swimming writer for Le Temps. NORTHERN EUROPE: Oene Rusticus, Swimming World European correspondent from The Netherlands SOUTH AFRICA: Neville Smith, Swimming South Africa. SOUTH AMERICA: Jorge Aguado, Swimming World South American correspondent from Argentina; Alex Pussieldi, senior writer for Bestswimming.com.br. UNITED KINGDOM: James Hickman, director of Made in Manchester TV. SWIMMING WORLD: Jeff Commings, associate producer SwimmingWorld.TV; Bob Ingram, senior editor; Judy Jacob, production assistant; John Lohn, senior writer; and Jason Marsteller, general manager of media properties.

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