BARCELONA, SPAIN, June 2. 'TIS ALMOST summer and the livin' is getting just a little bit harder.<\/p>\n
With the advent of the summer season, the drive for Fukuoka is on fullbore, and on Day 2 of the first stop of the Mare Nostrum tour, in Barcelona at the Club Natacio Saint Andreu (50 M) Pool the competition heated up considerably.<\/p>\n
Foremost among the "heater uppers" was Stanford University sophomore-to-be Markus Rogan, who competes internationally for Austria and won the 200 back here in a pr-national record 1:59.85 — fourth-fastest globally for the year.<\/p>\n
Rogan, who trains with Coach Murray Stephens' Morth Baltimore Aquatics Club — home to former 200 breast world record-holder Anita Nall, among others, when not tolling for Coach Skip Kenney on The Farm in Palo Alto — decisively defeated Hungarian star Peter Horvath (2:01.61) and Japan's Takashi Nakano (2:01.95) for his first major international title.<\/p>\n
Rogan was runner-up at this year's NCAA Championships in College Station in the 200 back and his time — 1:41.64 (yards) is fastest-ever among swimmers
\nunder 19 but cannot count as an American age group national mark because he's not a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
The American-NCAA record in the 200 back (1:40.06) by former Stanford star Brian Retterer so Rogan's 1:41.6 as a rookie augurs well for him possibly becoming the first man ever under 1:40.0 at next year's championships.<\/p>\n
Rogan's pr in the 200 meter back coming in was a 2:01.38 that ranked him 43rd globally last season, down from his 2:01.80 in 1999.<\/p>\n
Where he'll finish this year ranked is of course unknown at present but 1:59.8 in June unrested could well translate into a spot in the finals next month in Japan.<\/p>\n
A quadruple Olympic champ also made his long course debut here, as a certain Mr. Popov won his first title of the year — the 50 free — with a 22.34-22.62 triumph over former Cal Golden Bear (and Polish Olympian) Bart Kiezerowski.<\/p>\n
Popov is world record-holder off his 21.64 from last summer's Russian Olympic Trials but finished out of the money at the Olympics in a race he had come to dominate.<\/p>\n
Another Olympic champ — Sweden's Lars Frolander (100 fly) — was dethroned here by Ukraine's Dennis Sylantyev, 53.28-53.53. Frolander's pr and national-European record is 52 flat from Sydney, ranking him third on the all-time performers-performances' list. Sylantyev's pr-NR is 52.52 from the Goodwill Games three years ago in The Big Apple, ranking in a tie for sixth on the all-time performers' list.<\/p>\n
Yet another Olympic champ resurfaced here after a rather quiet winter, and that would be Costa Rica's Atlanta 200 free champ, Sylvia Poll, who won her
\nfavorite event in 1:59.38 — No. 2 globally for the year. Poll was third at the Sydney Olympics behind Australia's Susie O'Neill and Slovakia's Martina
\nMoravcova, winner of the 50 fly opening day here (Friday).<\/p>\n
Double MM kept up her winning ways today with a pair of victories, the 50 free in 25.91 and the 100 fly in 59.20. Her prs-NRs are 25.24 and 57.97 — this latter swim ranking her fifth all-time performers.<\/p>\n
Another winner for the second time in two days was hometown favorite Nina Zhivanevskaya, who won the 200 back in 2:13.58 to Australia's Clementine Stoney's 2:14.09. The winner stroked to the 50 back title yesterday.<\/p>\n
In the men's 200 free Hungary's Attila Zubor raced to a pr of 1:49.82 for the victory, eclipsing his old pr of 1:49.83 at last year's Mare Nostrum meeting in Monte Carlo He'll be after the Hungarian NR of 1:49.17 by Atlanta 200 IM gold medalist Attila Czene next month in Japan, and Czene of course was national-collegiate champ last season in the 200 IM for Arizona
\nState's Sun Devils.<\/p>\n
The 400 IMs were won by New Zealand Olympian Dean Kent (4:24.20) and Ukraine dual Olympic gold medalist Yana Klochkova (4:41.82). Her countryman Oleg Lisogor won the 100 breast (1:02.17) and on the distaff side South Africa's Sarah Poewe edged American Olympian Amanda Beard (1:09.14-1:09.26).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BARCELONA, SPAIN, June 2. 'TIS ALMOST summer and the livin' is getting just a little bit harder. With the advent of the summer season, the drive for Fukuoka is on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[948,44,3588,6232,105,2420,51,15254,74,4701,15257,185,15256,1613,589,9318,14513,923,15255,141,696,1030,8301,359,251,330,322,4541,6270,1273,10421,15253,1561,3591,288,475,1086,531,190,500,45,6754,14086,238,291,489,62,3679],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-anita-nall","tag-atlanta","tag-attila-czene","tag-attila-zubor","tag-australia","tag-austria","tag-barcelona","tag-bart-kiezerowski","tag-brian-retterer","tag-clementine-stoney","tag-club-natacio-saint-andreu","tag-coach","tag-coach-murray-stephens-morth-baltimore-aquatics-club","tag-college-station","tag-costa-rica","tag-dean-kent","tag-dennis-sylantyev","tag-fukuoka","tag-hungarian-nr","tag-hungary","tag-japan","tag-lars-frolander","tag-markus-rogan","tag-martina-moravcova","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-championships","tag-new-zealand","tag-nina-zhivanevskaya","tag-oleg-lisogor","tag-palo-alto","tag-peter-horvath","tag-popov","tag-runner-up","tag-sarah-poewe","tag-skip-kenney","tag-slovakia","tag-south-africa","tag-spain","tag-stanford-university","tag-sweden","tag-sydney","tag-sylvia-poll","tag-takashi-nakano","tag-the-olympics","tag-the-sydney-olympics","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-yana-klochkova"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n