Pan Pacific Championships, Night Four Finals: Sam Short Sets Aussie Record in 1500
Long before the swimmers stepped to the blocks in the men’s 1,500 freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships, the best mile of the day had been swum Saturday.
That swim came Saturday morning, at the European Championships in Paris, with German wunder-teen Johannes Leibmann blasting a time of 14:26.79 that obliterated Bobby Finke’s World record from the Paris Olympics at 14:30.67.
As a follow-up, Sam Short did pretty darn well.
Short went 14:33.97 to win gold at the Woollett Aquatics Centre in Irvine. It makes him the Australian record-holder, taking down the 14:34.56 set by one of his idols, Grant Hackett, all the way in 2001. It’s the eight-fastest performance and makes Short the sixth-fastest performer of all-time. He did it with Ian Thorpe, the Aussie icon, in attendance.
The swim surprised Short, among others. But it’s possible that him being relaxed and short on expectations going into it helped his performance.
“I really felt like well, not now,” he said. “I haven’t really been training for it, and I just really wanted to go in there and just finish off this big campaign I’ve had this year. When I actually heard 14:33. I was like, holy moly, Just knocked off one of my hero’s best times. So, and it was even better, Thorpy was right behind in the VIP section watching. So, best moment. I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.”
It caps a week in which he’s won gold in the 400, 800 and 1,500 free and silver in the 800 free relay in a dominant Australian male performance. It caps a summer of extreme consistency, from his 400 frees clustered in the low 3:40s to consecutive 7:36/7:37 800s.
“I’ve gone five well-sub-15-minute swims now. Slowest one was 14:54 at nationals,” he said. “So if I can do that here, my average come the Olympics and World Championships, all I need to do is be my average and be contending for podium places.”
Kazuishi Imafuku finished second in 14:42.59. That erases the mark that Kaito Tabuchi set at 14:45.57 in March. Tabuchi was fifth in 14:57.02.
Finke finished a downer of a day by finishing third in 14:44.26 to nab bronze for the United States. It also ends a disappointing season for the three-time Olympic gold medalist, who’s looking for answers in his form. He was second in the 800 and third in the 400 individual medley to go with this bronze.
“I don’t know. It was just things didn’t go my way this year,” Finke said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have pretty much a good year every single year I’ve been swimming. So you know, that’s just how it is sometimes. It’s just things don’t always go your way. Just got to go home and train harder, smarter, faster.”
In the slowest heat in the morning, three Aussies finished on top. Benjamin Goedemans was best of them in 15:01.20, which took sixth place overall. Nicholas Sloman followed in 15:15.39, then Elijah Winnington in 15:19.37. That is seventh and eighth, respectively.