In his final swim of the Ontario Junior International in Toronto, stand-out age group swimmer Michael Andrew just missed breaking a world junior record in the 50m breaststroke.
With a body-length lead at the finish, Andrew stretched out into the wall and stopped the clock at 27.10, precisely five one-hundredths of a second shy of the current world junior record.
Andrew won the final by a large margin however, beating second place finisher Charlie Attwood by 0.82 seconds as he touched in for silver in 27.92. Andrew was almost two seconds ahead of third place finisher Warren Mayer.
Prior to Andrew’s 50m breaststroke performance he competed in the 200m IM where he took home his first gold of the night. Andrew was a 1:56.37, improving from his 1:57.69 prelim swim significantly. That time ranks him 14th in the world this season.
Andrew has shown this past weekend at the OJI that his breaststroke is becoming his most powerful and dangerous weapon.
Earlier in the meet, Andrew rocked a very solid 58.32 in the men’s 100m breaststroke final for a new best time. That time also ranks him 13th in the world overall this season.
The time converts to a sub-minute swim, something the Andrew camp is hoping he can accomplish in the long course pool at the Arena Pro Swim Series at Austin this January.
:51.9 – 100 back
He also swam:
23.5 – 50 fly
21.6 – 50 free
24.0 – 50 back
51.5 – 100 fly
All excellent times.
Unfortunately, so many of our kids have to train in “the bathtub” year round, or most of the year, anyway- so many indoor 25Y pools in the US, particularly in northern states. Used to drive me nuts when non-swimming folks would call those pools “Olympic size”. I did 99% of my practices in short course. I remember that “lost at sea” feeling I’d get in a 50M pool when I hadn’t been in one for a while!
I’m pretty old school, so it has been tough for me to accept 50s as events for folks over 12 years old, but I’m trying. It probably would be easier to accept if I myself hadn’t been such a lousy sprinter!
As far… Read more »
Very good weekend for him but I hope he will not specialize in the 50s of strokes in the future. 😆
If you think MA only specializes in 50s, you haven’t paid attention to his career long enough.
Don’t worry, Bobo has been paying attention 🙂
My bad, then.
When did Bobo start paying attention to MA’s career?
Beegees, I follow his career since he started to make waves at 10 when he broke his first NAG records.
And where I have said he only specializes in the 50s? 😯
I’ve written with a little humor that I only hoped he will not specialize in the future in the 50s of stroke. That’s well different.
Because right now his best success, especially in long course, is in the shortest distances. Then it’s in the 100s. And then, maybe apart from the 200 IM, he suffers in the 200s.
Just a fact.
I talk about long course here. The real swimming. 😆 😉 Even if with time, I’ve started to appreciate some aspects of… Read more »
Bobo,
Please accept my apology for implying you haven’t followed his career long enough.
You started following him since he was 10?
Ah that makes the two of us.
I also usually start following a phenomenal swimmer’s career when they were 9 or 10. For example, I started following Katie Ledecky, Missy Franklin, Ryan Murphy, etc since they were 9 or 10 yo.
Does it convert to a sub minute swim though? Most peoples SC 100 breast times are 2+ seconds faster than LC! That doesn’t make this a sub minute time.
its not under a minute on the swimswam time converter…its 1:00.32 and I think MA is stronger in SC so I think he’s still at just under 1:01. But people are free to believe whatever they want as far as I’m concerned. No one broke a minute at nationals so MA has got as good a chance as anyone else come next summer.
Remember that last week champs were pretty weak on the Breast events.. no Cordes and Fink. so.. a 1:00 high swimmer won´t make the cut..
Or confirms the doubts… who cares how many 50 events he crushes
Yeah who cares about 50’s, somebody let Manadou know. I guess the doubts of Ruta’s training are confirmed as well because she can’t win a 200. Jon Rudd doesn’t know what the heck he is doing. What about Gyurta’s training? He can’t win a 100 so his coach must not know what he is doing either.
Michael Andrew is clearly focused on 100 long course right now. As he gets faster in the 100 LC races, his 50’s will drop as well. MA is geared more towards the 100’s than 200’s. If he were to put all his focus on the 200’s, he would be putting up great times for a 16 year old but why not focus on… Read more »
You have mentioned a lot of great 50 freestylers but I think the point is that Dude was trying to make is that 50s in the other strokes are a bit pointless as MA is undoubtably attempting to go to Rio. And no one is saying his 100s aren’t good but he really is crushing the 50s when we hope he can do the same in the races that are on the Rio schedule
Once again, Michael Andrew defies the naysayers (aka anti-USRPT brigade).
Did not realize this was short course at first. Was REALLY impressed for a bit, haha.