Remember, not all of these athletes are sponsored by the brand for whom they are swimming. Some of them fall under the category of swimming for a sponsored federation, or swimming for a sponsored college. This includes swimmers like Matt Grevers and Kosuke Kitajima, both of whom are among Speedo’s 4 “federation sponsored” athletes. See the preview for full details on the rules.
The buzz is in the air at the LZR-Powerskin Arena, located in the tiny Pitcairn Islands: about halfway between Chile and Australia (and roughly 3,000 miles from either). Meet organizers chose this distant location because 1) it’s somewhere they’d always wanted to visit, and 2) it’s the most remote inhabited-island on earth, which limits any home-field advantage or outside distractions.
This is the most highly anticipated dual meet since the 2007 Duel in the Pool in Sydney. Arena Elite Team coach Brett Hawke, who was luckily granted deck-credentials by the French-based Arena International, is chomping at the bit over day 1, which will be heavily weighted with his specialties: the sprint freestyles. Team Speedo knows that this first day isn’t their best, but are cool, collected, and confident with some of the greatest champions the sport has ever seen on their side of the pool.
Both teams are at full-strength and ready to roll, and here we go with day 1 at the 2011 Speedo-Arena Sponsor ‘Ship
1. Men’s 50 free
1. Cesar Cielo (Arena)
2. Nathan Adrian (Arena College)
3. Fabien Gilot (Speedo)
4. Brent Hayden (Speedo)
5. Alain Bernard (Arena)
6. Eamon Sullivan (Speedo)
Braden-Cielo is the best sprinter in the world right now, and has been for years. Nathan Adrian is hot on his heels, however. Since Beijing, Gilot has supplanted Bernard as France’s “second entry” in this 50. Brent Hayden was on fire in 2010, and carried that momentum into points here.
Team Scores after Event 1: Arena 15, Speedo 7
2. Women’s 50 free
1. Therese Alshammar (Arena)
2. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (Arena)
3. Marleen Veldhuis (Speedo)
4. Jessica Hardy (Speedo)
5. Fran Halsall (Arena)
6. Christine Magnuson (Speedo)
Braden-Team Arena continues to dominate the sprint events. Alshammar is way out in front of the field, and continues to be the best pure-sprinter in the world. Veldhuis is refocused (Dara Torres style) after giving birth to her 1st child, but this infusion of youth into her life was not enough to allow her to catch her younger teammate Ranomi Kromowidjojo, who has taken over the prodigious mantle of the Netherlands’ best female sprinter. Jessica Hardy’s hard-work in the freestyles continued to pay off for her, and she held off Brit Fran Halsall for 4th. This race set an early-standard for “race of the week” that the rest of the meet will be chasing.
Team Scores after Event 2: Arena 30, Speedo 14
3. Men’s 50 backstroke
1. Liam Tancock (Speedo)
2. Ashwin Wildeboer (Speedo)
3. Daniel Bell (Arena Fed.)
4. Stanislav Donets (Arena Fed.)
5. Aaron Peirsol (Arena)
6. Felliipo Mangini (Speedo)
Reezy- There’s no doubt that Liam Tancock is one of the best 50m backstrokers in the world, the man is pure speed on his back. Aschwin Wildeboer and Daniel Bell were seeded as close as you can get based on their times (only .03 seconds apart), but the more veteran and mature Wildeboer took 2nd. Peirsol is one of the best backstrokers ever, but as an American never put much emphasis on this 50 meter race, and Donets’ great short course season propelled him ahead for 4th. Team Scores after Event 3: Arena 39, Speedo 27
6. Women’s 50m Backstroke
1. Aleksandra Herasimenia (Arena Fed.)
2. Emily Seebohm (Arena)
3. Daniela Samulski (Speedo)
4. Natalie Coughlin (Speedo)
5. Marleen Veldhuis (Speedo)
6. Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (Arena College) Reezy- Just like she did at last years European Championships, Herasimenia proved she is the one to beat in this event. The real duel was for second place: Seebohm a fantastic all around swimmer and was once the WR holder in this event, and just edged out Samuski. Like Peirsol, you can’t mention women’s backstroke with out including Coughlin: she sneaks in for fourth. Neither Veldhuis or Vanderpool-Wallace is a backstroker by trade, but Veldhuis dabbled a little earlier in her career, and is such a talent that she took the points. Team Scores after Event 4: Arena 52, Speedo 36
5. Men’s 50 breaststroke
1. Cameron van der Burgh (Arena)
2. Kosuke Kitajima (Speedo Fed.)
3. Roland Schoeman (Arena)
4. Fabio Scozzoli (Speedo)
5. Alexander Dale Oen (Arena)
6. Eric Friedland (Speedo College)
Braden-The last time that van der Burgh didn’t have the best time in the world in this event at the end of the season was 2007, and even then he was 2nd behind Mark Gangloff. The 50 breaststroke is a whole different animal than the 100 or 200, and he got Kitajima here. Schoeman might have surprised some people with his 3rd-place swim, but he gave this race a go during the World Cup season last year, and posted the 2nd-best short course time in the world for 2010. The fact that two swimmers as great as Scozzoli and Dale Oen had to fight for 4th shows the depth of both teams.
Team Scores after Event 5: Arena 66, Speedo 44
6. Women’s 50 breaststroke
1. Leisel Jones (Speedo)
2. Rebecca Soni (Arena)
3. Sarah Katsoulis (Speedo)
4. Annamay Pierse (Speedo Fed.)
5. Suzaan van Biljon (Arena)
6. Micah Lawrence (Arena College)
Braden- With Jessica Hardy sitting this one out, this became a very tight race. Rebecca Soni will dominate the other two breaststrokes, but this one was all Leisel Jones. Katsoulis almost challenged those top two, but was comfortably in 3rd. Pierse is better in the 200, but was still good enough to hold off Biljon and Lawrence, both of whom are recent college grads and have bright futures as they move into their full-time swimming careers.
Team Scores after Event 6: Arena 73, Speedo 59
7. Men’s 200 IM
1. Ryan Lochte (Speedo)
2. Tyler Clary (Speedo)
3. Laslo Cseh (Arena)
4. Thiago Pereira (Speedo Fed)
5. Eric Shanteau (Arena)
6. Roland Schoeman (Arena)
Reezy- Team Speedo definitely has a strong showing in the IM’s. Lochte is one of the best in the world with Clary and Cseh are not far behind, but only Phelps’ focusing on other events prevented a Speedo sweep. Pereira was only a few tenths off of third place, and continues to improve. A nice showing here begs the question whether Shanteau, now training with Dave Salo in SoCal, will continue to put effort into the IM’s or will focus on the breaststrokes. Team Scores after Event 7: Arena 79, Speedo 75
8. Women’s 200 IM
1. Stephanie Rice (Speedo)
2. Katinka Hosszu (Arena Fed.)
3. Kirsty Coventry (Arena)
4. Hannah Miley (Arena)
5. Elizabeth Beisel (Speedo College)
6. Ellen Fullerton (Speedo)
Reezy- The queen of the IM’s is back after a shoulder surgery that sidelined her for most of 2010. Rice can not get too comfortable in the #1 spot because after a fantastic collegiate season, runner-up Katinka Hosszu is powering to take her throne. Arena looked good with Hannah Miley showing continued improvement, and the Beijing silver-medalist Coventry roars back to take 3rd here. Beisel should show better in the 400 IM. Team Scores after Event 8: Arena 91, Speedo 85
9. Men’s 50 butterfly
1. Cesar Cielo (Arena)
2. Jason Dunford (Arena)
3. Roland Schoeman (Arena)
4. Matt Grevers (Speedo Fed)
5. Fabien Gilot (Speedo)
6. Eamon Sullivan (Speedo)
Braden- Team Arena swept this event with 3 of the best sprint butterfliers in the world, including a second event win by Cielo. The Speedo men were all entered with “No Times,” indicating a lack of experience in swimming this event internationally. Still, speed is speed, and three speed guys made this a closer race than you might have thought. Grevers showed some real quality in the butterfly during the short course season.
Team Scores after Event 9: Arena 108, Speedo 90
10. Women’s 50 butterfly
1. Therese Alshammar (Arena)
2. Sarah Sjostrom (Arena)
3. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (Arena)
4. Liuyang Jiao (Speedo fed.)
5. Christine Magnuson (Speedo)
6. Jemma Lowe (Speedo Fed.)
Braden- Alshammar and Sjostrom combined for 15 out of the 20 fastest 50 fly times in the world in 2010. They continued that dominance with a 1-2 finish in this race, and Ranomi Kromowidjojo finished up a clean sweep of the 50 butterflies for the Arena Elite Team. Magnuson, Lowe, and Jiao will be much more competitive in the 100 and 200 flys, however, so Arena needs to not get complacent and bring it hard in those two races. Team Scores after Event 10: Arena 125, Speedo 95
11. Men’s 400 Free
1. Park Tae-Hwan (Speedo)
2. Ous Mellouli (Arena)
3. Paul Beiderman (Arena)
4. Ryan Cochrane (Speedo Fed.)
5. Peter Vanderkaay (Speedo)
6. Mades Glaesner (Arena)
Reezy- Park hasn’t slowed down since Beijing, posting the top time in the world in 2010, and getting a win here. The great thing about Mellouli is that this isn’t even his strongest event, but he can still take 2nd. He gets faster as the races get longer, and after a dull summer in 2010 has ratcheted up the intensity. The Speedo/Arena match up in this event will grow stronger over the next year. Beiderman has a strong showing, but with him shifting his focus to the shorter 200, he slips to 3rd. The fight for 4th was a great duel but Cochrane just out touched PVK. Team Scores after Event 11: Arena 134, Speedo 108
12. Women’s 400 free
1. Rebecca Adlington (Speedo)
2. Katie Hoff (Speedo)
3. Kate Ziegler (Speedo)
4. Lotte Friis (Arena)
5. Wendy Trott (Arena Fed.)
6. Sike Lippok (Arena Fed.)
Reezy- Adlington lit up the scoreboard with a great 400 free. Her teammates Hoff and Ziegler (or Ziegler and Hoff) finished right behind her, followed by the 3 Arena girls. This was Speedo’s strongest event of the day, which they demonstrated with the strong sweep. Trott and Friis should give a much better challenge in the 800 on day 2, and Lippok’s best event is the 200 free, but she usually works shorter off of that rather than longer.
Team Scores after Event 12: Arena 139, Speedo 125
13. Men’s 400 medley relay
1. Speedo A (Matt Grevers (fed.), Kosuke Kitajima (fed.), Michael Phelps, Fabien Gilot)
2. Arena A (Aaron Peirsol, Alexander Dale Oen, Milorad Cavic, Nathan Adrian (college))
3. Arena B (Stanislav Donets (fed.), Cameron van der Burgh, Jason Dunford, Alain Bernard)
Braden- In the battle between the A-relays, Speedo was a little better on each of the first 3 legs. Adrian made a valiant push to come back on the anchor leg, with a great sub-48 split, but Gilot had just enough to hold him off for the win by 4-tenths.
On the B-relays, the ultra-talented Tancock put Speedo out to a big lead, but Donets kept it surprisingly close in building off of his performance from Dubai last season in a short course pool. The difference here was Jason Dunford, who made a big charge against Pereira, who was forced into duty in this race thanks to Speedo’s limited butterfly depth. Pereira’s best stroke is probably fly, but he excels in the IM races based on his incredible versatility rather than any one stroke. Arena’s B out-touched Speedo by just a few inches.
Team Scores after Event 13: Arena 146, Speedo 141
14. Women’s 400 medley relay
1. Arena A (Emily Seebohm, Rebecca Soni, Sarah Sjostrom, Ranomi Kromowidjojo)
3. Arena B (Kirsty Coventry, Suzaan van Biljon, Therese Alshammar, Fran Halsall)
4. Speedo B (Daniela Samulski, Sarah Katsoulis (fed.), Dana Vollmer, Marleen Veldhuis)
Braden- If Brett Hawke felt like living dangerously, Arena probably could’ve gone 1-2 in this relay. As it was, Arena put up a dominating win, and took this race by over 2 seconds. The butterfliers were about event, but Arena dominated every other facet of this race. But the ever-wily Hawke will surely file this result away for scheming later in the meet. The Arena B squad got it’s win based on great bookend swims from Coventry and Halsall, though the Speedo B looked like they could make it a race after a great Katsoulis breaststroke.
Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com.
He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming.
Aside from his life on the InterWet, …
also, no way arena gets beat in the 4 med…. mens i mean