Sports thread: Everything sport related here.

[manqiangrexue]

any shot at China equaling the most total golds record at one world championship? it was set by the US at 23 a few decades back.

Hey, that's a good way to keep things interesting. We've got 22 right now, and there are 14 swimming events left over the last 2 days (15 counting men's water polo but neither China nor the US are in the finals there). So we'll need 2 to overtake. Just follow the schedule and see how many make it to the finals and we'll see.

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I really hope they can have this level of performance at the Olympics. That's when it truly counts and every gold medal taken away there that would otherwise go to US etc is glorious to watch.

US won't be able to say anything coz it's their sport.

At this rate, the US is gonna put sanctions on Westerners working as coaches for the Chinese team LOL And they'll be too late to catch that train too.

 

[henrik]

Back-to-back CRAZINESSS!!!! Men's 200m freestyle relay, USA opened up a dominant lead, we were trailing by as much as 6-8 meters at one point. Then we started closing at the 3rd swimmer; Pan Zhanle, closed up from lagging >4m to lagging some 2m, still pretty difficult for the last guy. Then Zhang Zhanshuo came in for the anchor and immediately cut it down to 0.5 meters and there was big hope. Even in the last 50 meter turn, he was neck and neck with the American until about the last 20 meters when he pulled ahead by 0.2-0.3m. He came in for the gold medal touch and I didn't even realize that the Koreans were in the race too and overtook the Americans as well! Zhang out-touched his Korean rival by 0.1 seconds and the Americans, once leading everyone by heads and shoulders, settled for bronze!!

I am not stupid enough to blow out my arm again despite the total nailbiter of a race and I have gotten absolutely NO work done at the office. How could I?

And now, the medal tables has China at 22 gold medals and the US at 7. They are 15 behind with 14 events left. Game over, it's all entertainment now.

Edit: Analyzing the results, this is what happened. At first, it looked like Zhang Zhanshuo was the superhero... but he's not. His split time wasn't very fast; he was 3rd out of the 4 Chinese swimmers in speed. But he overtook the US team the hardest because Americans totally blew their wad on the first guys, putting their best swimmers first and their worst last. Pan Zhanle was China's strongest swimmer, faster than every teammate by at least 1.5 seconds, and the second fastest split time in the competition. He was 0.14 seconds slower, however, than the Korean 200m freestyle champ, who anchored his team and almost surged past everyone in the last few meters. Another 5-10m against him and we might have been toast.

They were aiming for this 200m freestyle relay win. That was why Pan Zhanle was conserving his energy in his 200m freestyle, and Zhang Zhanshuo was conserving his energy in his 800m freestyle.

The Koreans won the men's 200m freestyle relay at the Hangzhou Asian Games, so they thought they could it here again.

 

[Randomuser]

They were aiming for this 200m freestyle relay win. That was why Pan Zhanle was conserving his energy in his 200m freestyle, and Zhang Zhanshuo was conserving his energy in his 800m freestyle.

The Koreans won the men's 200m freestyle relay at the Hangzhou Asian Games, so they thought they could it here again.

I something go on Naver from time to time. I kinda get why Koreans are so angry all the time esp at China because you constant see news where Park/Kim was so close to winning gold but missed out by a bit. And now these days quite often you see like these cases where Korea losses to China they dubbed it the great wall of China.

Pretty much the story of Korea. If only if China didn't exist, Korea would be a winner. At least they got football though, although the latest news I read is they just fired their coach coz they somehow managed to lose to Jordan in the AFC.

 

[azn_cyniq]

I something go on Naver from time to time. I kinda get why Koreans are so angry all the time esp at China because you constant see news where Park/Kim was so close to winning gold but missed out by a bit. And now these days quite often you see like these cases where Korea losses to China they dubbed it the great wall of China.

Pretty much the story of Korea. If only if China didn't exist, Korea would be a winner. At least they got football though, although the latest news I read is they just fired their coach coz they somehow managed to lose to Jordan in the AFC.

If China didn't exist, neither would Korea and Japan. They would've been colonized by the West.

 

[manqiangrexue]

They were aiming for this 200m freestyle relay win. That was why Pan Zhanle was conserving his energy in his 200m freestyle, and Zhang Zhanshuo was conserving his energy in his 800m freestyle.

The Koreans won the men's 200m freestyle relay at the Hangzhou Asian Games, so they thought they could it here again.

Is this some rumor or where did you get this information? The 200m freestyle for men was on 2/13 and the 800m freestyle was on 2/14. The 200m freestyle relay was on 2/16. I think 2 days is more than enough rest for Zhang to recover from an 800m race not to mention 3 days for Pan on a 200m race. And it's not like they skipped these events; they went but did not advance. I'd tend to think that it's these younger guys maybe got nervous or made mistakes at first, which is why they're here being trained and gaining international competition experience. If they thought they could not win the individuals and needed to rest for the team events, they shouldn't have even went. Throwing away 2 gold medals (if they thought they could get them) for a team gold is just not the way to maximize the Olympic table and that's what China wants.

 

[Shaolian]

OK, I'm not a regular follower of swimming. But one thing I noticed about the Chinese swimmers in this meet is that a lot of them seems to conserve their energy until the final lap or final few meters, before they exploded to overtake their competition. Most of the time they were trailing, and usually the quickest one on the final lap is a Chinese swimmer. Sometimes they managed to catch up, sometimes they fell short. Couple with the fact that majority of the Chinese team are youngsters below 20 years old, I tend to think that they are using this World Championships to fine tune race tactics and gain valuable competitive exposures/experiences.

 

[getready]

Looks like China is going to dominate the men's breaststroke events at the Paris Olympics

As far as I know, the main medal contenders are Pan Zhanle (100m freestyle), Qin Haiyang (50m, 100m, 200m breaststroke), Wang Shun (200m IM), and Zhang Yufei. Are there any others?

I'm not kidding when I say, Qin Haiyang alone will dominate the breast events. If everything goes well, no one will touch him. Peaty is a dark horse depending on his recovery. Weird to say he is a dark horse cuz he is a WR holder and multiple OG champ but he took a long hiatus with personal problems and trying to come back to elite racing half a year ago. But looks like it isn't going well.


There are also these medal contenders li bingjie (W 800m free) , xu jiayu (M back) , tang qianting(W breast) , yan zibei(outside chance in the M 100m breast), yu yuting +(W IM), yang junxuan( outside chance in W 200m free), zhang zhanshuo ( 16yr old teen phenom, in the M IM depending how fast he improves).

There are probably few others I forget and some surprises we will only see when they finally race. Not to mention the relay events can be unpredictable

 

[getready]

OK, I'm not a regular follower of swimming. But one thing I noticed about the Chinese swimmers in this meet is that a lot of them seems to conserve their energy until the final lap or final few meters, before they exploded to overtake their competition. Most of the time they were trailing, and usually the quickest one on the final lap is a Chinese swimmer. Sometimes they managed to catch up, sometimes they fell short. Couple with the fact that majority of the Chinese team are youngsters below 20 years old, I tend to think that they are using this World Championships to fine tune race tactics and gain valuable competitive exposures/experiences.

Yes Dong zhihao fully used this race strategy, it's called back ending the race. Sun Yang used to do it alot too in his 400m and 1500m races. I recall clearly in the 1500m race when he broke the long standing WR of Aus swimmer Kieran perkins, he busted the final lap in an incredible sprint. That's after swimming 1450m lol. 29 laps!

However it's not exclusive to Chinese swimmer, other non Chinese swimmers do it too. The Olympic 100m champ Chalmers is famous for his strong finish.

The opposite strategy is to front end the race which is to swim aggressively during first half of the race and try to build a big lead hoping that the rivals cannot overcome. It can be risky as Ive seen quite a few elite swimmers use it and just faded in the end. It's alot based on timing cuz either way you take a risk. Conserve too much in the front half and you might be too far back in the end to overcome the lead. Swim too fast in the first half and you build up too much lactic acid and pay for it in the end.

Interestingly, Pan seem to have front end his 100m world record breaking race. I've read that His first lap split is considered fast compared to lap times of previous fast swims.

 

[henrik]

Is this some rumor or where did you get this information? The 200m freestyle for men was on 2/13 and the 800m freestyle was on 2/14. The 200m freestyle relay was on 2/16. I think 2 days is more than enough rest for Zhang to recover from an 800m race not to mention 3 days for Pan on a 200m race. And it's not like they skipped these events; they went but did not advance. I'd tend to think that it's these younger guys maybe got nervous or made mistakes at first, which is why they're here being trained and gaining international competition experience. If they thought they could not win the individuals and needed to rest for the team events, they shouldn't have even went. Throwing away 2 gold medals (if they thought they could get them) for a team gold is just not the way to maximize the Olympic table and that's what China wants.

Pan Zhanle swam slowly for his 200m freestyle, and then swam the second fastest 200m split for the 200m freestyle. He was clearly conserving energy for his 100m freestyle and the 200m freestyle relay. The Korean winner in the 200m freestyle, also swam the fastest split in the 200m relay. Pan Zhanle could have won the silver in 200m freestyle and maybe a bronze in the 200m freestyle relay. By giving up the 200m freestyle, they won the 200m relay.

 

[getready]

Back-to-back CRAZINESSS!!!! Men's 200m freestyle relay, USA opened up a dominant lead, we were trailing by as much as 6-8 meters at one point. Then we started closing at the 3rd swimmer; Pan Zhanle, closed up from lagging >4m to lagging some 2m, still pretty difficult for the last guy. Then Zhang Zhanshuo came in for the anchor and immediately cut it down to 0.5 meters and there was big hope. Even in the last 50 meter turn, he was neck and neck with the American until about the last 20 meters when he pulled ahead by 0.2-0.3m. He came in for the gold medal touch and I didn't even realize that the Koreans were in the race too and overtook the Americans as well! Zhang out-touched his Korean rival by 0.1 seconds and the Americans, once leading everyone by heads and shoulders, settled for bronze!!

I am not stupid enough to blow out my arm again despite the total nailbiter of a race and I have gotten absolutely NO work done at the office. How could I?

And now, the medal tables has China at 22 gold medals and the US at 7. They are 15 behind with 14 events left. Game over, it's all entertainment now.

Edit: Analyzing the results, this is what happened. At first, it looked like Zhang Zhanshuo was the superhero... but he's not. His split time wasn't very fast; he was 3rd out of the 4 Chinese swimmers in speed. But he overtook the US team the hardest because Americans totally blew their wad on the first guys, putting their best swimmers first and their worst last. Pan Zhanle was China's strongest swimmer, faster than every teammate by at least 1.5 seconds, and the second fastest split time in the competition. He was 0.14 seconds slower, however, than the Korean 200m freestyle champ, who anchored his team and almost surged past everyone in the last few meters. Another 5-10m against him and we might have been toast.

Yep it was super exciting race wow. Hwang the kor who anchored his team had the fastest split time of all the swimmers which is not surprising as he just won the 200m free race days ago. Pan had the 2nd fastest split and the American guy forster I think had the 3rd fastest.

Zhang who swam last is the 16 yr old teen phenom who also swam in the Gold medal 100m free relay. His time wasn't the fastest but 1.45.8 for a 16 yr old is massive. And this wasn't even his best event. I think he did great considering he held off the kor 200m champ. What an epic finish. I am really anticipating his career. He could very well be a star.

Interestingly china adopted a strategy of putting their best swimmer in the third leg. Pan in the men's relay and Li in the women's relay. And in both races the anchors are 16 yr old teen phenoms with alot of potential. So I guess the plan is to try takeover the lead after the third leg with the best guy or woman they have then try and keep the lead till the end with their hungry young guns in last leg.

It's quite unusual as normally the best swimmer swims either in lead off first or anchors the last leg. To their credit it worked both times though and China got gold.

SK had the correct plan and were whiskers away from gold but their first leg was abysmal and they were dead last or second last after that. Too hard to recover from that.

To end this, I wanna bring down Chinese swim fans expectations down abit. The 4x200m race in Paris Olympics will be far harder. China will be a medal contender but gold is hard. At full strength, the UK and US best team will be tough to beat. For example last night, the first 2 swimmers in US team were their fastest swimmers in that relay team. That's why they are able to build up a huge lead in the first 2 legs. But their third guy normally is a backstroker and the last swimmer is a long distance guy. In Paris if they switched their last 2 guys with their A team, then it's too hard. So we need to be realistic.