SWIMMING:GERMANY'S PAUL Biedermann, the double World 200 metre and 400 metre freestyle champion, showed his class in retaining his 400m short course title at the Van den Hoogenband Stadium in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, yesterday.
Biedermann, one of a trio of double world champions competing there, was led at the 300m mark by Italy’s Federico Colbertaldo, but the 23-year-old powered ahead in the final 100 to claim the gold ahead of the Italian in three minutes 39.51 seconds. Alexander Selin of Russia won bronze.
From the point of view of Ireland’s three competitors, only Melanie Nocher emerged from the heats of the 100 metres backstroke to a semi-final, where she was placed 15th of the 16 competitors, but in a personal best of 1:00.12 seconds, five-hundredths of a second quicker than her heat time but shy of the top eight.
The longer 200m backstroke is Nocher’s top event in Eindhoven, having made the final in the event in the European Short Course championships in 2008 and 2009. She used the 100m backstroke as a tune-up event for her remaining swims this week.
“The only reason I do the 100 events is to get my speed up for the 200s,” said Nocher.
“I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t go under the one minute and my turns weren’t great, but it’s a start.
“I have not really tapered for this week either. I don’t know if tapering really works for me. So I thought I might try a different approach and it seems to be paying off.
“The 200 backstroke and the 400 freestyle are looking good. The pity is that the 200 free and the 200 back are on the same day, so I’ve had to pull out of the 200 free, which I would really have liked to have done,” she added.
“As its stands, I’m going in about sixth in the 400 free rankings and seventh or eighth in the 200 back, but they were set with the old suits, so, as my coach said, don’t write those times in stone, just get up and race.”
Aisling Cooney was placed 17th overall in the 100m backstroke heats, her top event, and missed the top 16 by three-hundredths of a second.
The ESB swimmer has the 50m and 200m backstroke to come.
Gráinne Murphy, in the 200m individual medley heats, broke Michelle De Bruin’s 15-year-old Irish record in 2:12.86, cutting 0.6 of a second of the 1995 time.
Her main focus is the 400m IM and the 800m freestyle, two of seven events she is entered in.
Her time in the 200m IM placed her outside the top eight, but it may set a decent platform for the rest of the week.
She is the only Irish competitor in action today when she goes in the 100m IM and the 800m freestyle, which is a heat-declared event and she has the distinct disadvantage of competing in the slower morning heat.
The Limerick-based swimmer will have to wait until the result of this evening’s heat to see if her time will be good enough to challenge for a place on the podium.
