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PHOENIX, Arizona, December 5. Last weekend was a great weekend to be a swimming fan. Three big meets in the United States and a couple others in Europe kept us occupied in the Swimming World offices. Let’s start at the Georgia Invite, where Natalie Coughlin showed she’s still at the top of her game. She took down her own American record in the 100 free for short course yards on Sunday with a time of 46.84, just a hundredth under her American record. Coughlin battled US Open record holder Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace in the race, who earlier this year twice clocked 46.81. Vanderpool-Wallace swam a 46.99 for the top collegiate time in the country among college swimmers this year, and she also swam a 21.77 on Friday for the top time in the country in the 50.

On Saturday, Coughlin swam the 100 breast, 100 back, and 100 fly in Athens and laid down a trio of fast times. Her 100 back time of 50.45 isn’t too far off her American record of 49.97, while her 50.39 in the 100 fly came up just shy of her American mark of 50.01. Coughlin swam a time of 1:00.29 in the women’s 100 breast, and we can’t hel but wonder if she’s testing the waters for the 200 IM again at the 2012 Olympic Trials.

Georgia’s distance program is looking good after strong swims from three of their best last weekend. Amber McDermott swam a 4:34.55 in the 500 at the Georgia Invite, the top time in the nation this year. Wendy Trott and Martin Grodski pulled double duty over the weekend, swimming the distance events at the US nationals and the Georgia Invite. Trott’s 1650 time of 15:44.10 would have been barely second in NCAAs. The person who got first at that meet? Wendy Trott. Just for reference, Trott is looking to win four in a row in the mile next March, and it doesn’t look she’ll have a problem with that. As for Grodski, he didn’t swim so well in the long course mile at nationals, but maybe just needed to be in his home pool, where he swam a 14:49.33. Grodski is hoping to improve on his second place finish at last March’s NCAAs in this event.

Coughlin’s teammate Caitlin Leverenz also swam at the nationals and Georgia Invite, and made a case for herself for titles at next year’s NCAAs and Olympic Trials. At long course nationals, she swam a lifetime best of 2:09.39 in the 200 IM and a strong 4:37.68 in the 400 IM. In short course, she almost broke four minutes for the first time in the 400 IM with a 4:00.59 and posted a 2:07.06 in the 200 breast, which tied with Texas A&M’s Breeja Larson as the fastest collegiate time this season.

The US nationals was a chance for younger swimmers to shine, and an opportunity for veterans to get in racing experience before holiday training. Rebecca Soni, Missy Franklin, Tyler Clary, Nathan Adrian and Brendan Hansen each won two events. Soni provided arguably the top swim of the meet with her 2:21.4 in the 200 breast, which is faster than she swam in the finals at worlds and the second-fastest performance of the year, and backed it up with a win in the 100 breast. Franklin posted some of the fastest in-season times for her in Atlanta, winning the 100 and 200 backstrokes. With Ryan Lochte broken down from training, Clary had no equal in the 400 IM with a very fast 4:15, and also won by a body length in the 200 back. Adrian looked powerful in winning the 50 and 100 freestyles in times that showed he’s going to be a factor next year. Hansen continued to solidify his place at the top of the US rankings in the breaststroke, winning the 100 in 1:00.4 and the 200 in 2:09.6, which is sixth fastest in the world.

Though it was the US nationals, several international swimmers made their way to the top of the podium. Several French swimmers spent two weeks training in Florida, then put up some very fast times in Atlanta. Camille Muffat won the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles, with her 400 being the best swim: a 4:03.64 that is faster than she swam at worlds to get third place, but a couple of tenths slower than her best of the year. Yannick Agnel had no problem in winning the 200 and 400 free, and Sebastien Rouault won the 1500 by three body lengths.

South African swimmers used the meet as an opportunity to satisfy their country’s policy of posting Olympic qualifying times before their Olympic Trials next spring. Darian Townsend and Sebastien Rousseau achieved those times, with the two dipping under the mark in the 200 IM as they placed 1-2 in the event, Townsend making the cut in the 200 free with his third place finish and Rousseau adding the 200 fly to his Olympic schedule after beating Tyler Clary to the wall. The two will still have to swim that fast at their Olympic Trials in order to officially earn the invite to London.

Katinka Hosszu took the weekend as an opportunity to chase some NCAA records in the individual medley at the Texas Invite in Austin. She clocked a 1:52.71 in the 200 IM, and 3:58.86 in the 400 IM. Both times were less than a second off Julia Smit’s marks in both events, but were lifetime bests and gives the Hungarian something to shoot for in March. Breaststrokers put up some strong numbers in Austin this weekend, with Arizona freshman Kevin Cordes clocking the top time in the country of 51.76 in the 100 breast, while USC’s Kasey Carlson knocked Breeja Larson off the top spot with a 58.46 to lead all women this year. Carlson hasn’t been known as a 200 breaststroker, but she also clocked 2:08.40 in that event for third overall.

On the men’s side in Austin, two-time NCAA Champion Cory Chitwood of Arizona won the 200 back in a lifetime best of 1:38.55, while USC’s Vlad Morozov defeated Jimmy Feigen in the 50 and 100 free with top times in the nation in both: 19.35 in the 50 and 42.32 in the 100.

Sarah Sjostrom, Mireia Belmonte Garcia and Hannah Miley were the talk of the long course Dutch Open Championships in Eindhoven, clocking a 53.05 in the 100 free. That swim broke Britta Steffen’s 2006 textile best of 53.30 from 2006 and would have won the world championship title – but oddly enough, Sjostrom did not swim that event in Shanghai. Sjostrom also swam a 57.32 in the 100 fly, her world record event, and was just a few hundredths slower than her best time of the year.

After getting silver in the 800 free short course title this time last year, Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia didn’t swim that event in Shanghai. But she made up for it last weekend with an 8:22.78, which would have gotten her third at long course worlds. posted the third-fastest 800 free this year in Eindhoven with an 8:22.78. Miley almost swam her fastest 400 IM of the year with a 4:34.76, just half a second off her silver medal-winning time from worlds.

Alain Bernard has been largely forgotten in the years since winning the 100 free at the Beijing Olympics, but with France potentially fielding a gold medal 400 free relay and up to five other Frenchman that could keep him from defending his Olympic title next year, Bernard stepped up at the French short course nationals last weekend and swam a 46.59 in the 100 free, the fastest time in the world. We’ll see how that time holds up after the European championships later this week.

It should be no surprise that James Magnussen won Australia’s Swimmer of the Year at their annual awards banquet in Sydney on Saturday. Magnussen won the only individual gold for Australia at the World Championships in the men’s 100 free and led his team to a surprising victory in the 400 free relay. Magnussen also swept the People’s Choice and Swimmer’s Swimmer awards, while his coach Brant Best earned Coach of the Year. Magnussen, Matt Targett, Matt Abood, and Eamon Sullivan earned the Golden Moment of the Year for that 400 free relay victory, and Melissa Gorman won the Open Water Swimmer of the Year award for taking fourth in the women’s 10k to qualify for the London Olympics.

Today, FINA named Ryan Lochte and Missy Franklin as the top swimmers in the world for 2011. The honor seems to be based solely on long course world championships accomplishments, where both won the most medals of anyone at the meet. Lochte won five golds in Shanghai, and Franklin won three golds, a silver and bronze. In diving, Qiu Bo and Wu Mingxai were FINA’s divers of the year, and Thomas Lurz and Keri-Anne Payne were named open water swimmers of the year. Congratulations to all the honorees.

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