Photo by Delly Carr<\/p>\n
Editorial coverage for the Pan Pacific Championships is proudly sponsored by Master Spas<\/a>! For complete coverage of the Pan Pacific Championships, check out our event landing page<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n By David Rieder<\/i><\/p>\n CHARLESTON, South Carolina, August 24. WITH no World Championships this summer, the focus of the world\u2019s elite swimmers will go towards one of three regional meets, the already-completed Commonwealth Games, the European Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n Since nearly every major swimming powerhouse focuses on one of these meets, so they make perfect venues for determining who would have been the World Champions in this off-year. Our \u201cVirtual World Championships\u201d will feature the top eight times recorded in one of these three major international finals. Times from prelims and semi-finals will not count, and only two entries per FINA-recognized country will be included. We will make note of B-final times from Pan Pacs that would finish among the top eight here, but those times do not count towards the final eight.<\/p>\n Our list will include all forty pool events contested at the World Championships. Note that the 50s of stroke won’t be contested at Pan Pacs, and the off-Olympic distances (women’s 1500 and men’s 800) were not contested at the Commonwealth Games. Events will be posted in the order in which they are completed.<\/p>\n