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Hail Cesar: First 50m Man Past Popov
Jun 28, 2010 - Craig Lord
While attending a family celebration for a birth and a retirement (how time rolls), I missed the good news from the race pool in Paris yesterday: a world medallist in 2007 and Olympic champion in 2008, Cesar Cielo (BRA and Auburn) cracked out a 21.55sec blast in the 50m free to become the first man to swim inside the world record that stood to a textile-suited Alex Popov (RUS) at 21.64.
It was a splendid moment for world swimming, one that Popov, keen to see those who followed him get past him at his best, will doubtless have celebrated too. His 21.64 was smashed to smithereens many times over in 2009 but no-one who cared to admit the truth of the times on the clock and the suits in the water doubted the excellence of a pioneering sprint that dated back to 2000, four years after Popov won the last two of his Olympic free crowns and three years before he won his last world titles.
In Paris, Cielo, coached by Brett Hawke at Auburn and now a member of the Flamengo club when he races back home in Brazil, added another feather to a bow that bows with honours: he joined the club of those sending a clear message of hope to the current generation of swimmers who look at the world record book and wonder how they are supposed to aspire to the other side of the coins of aquatic dreams (winning and doing so in record time).
Cielo joined a group of 10 swimmers (a few others have come very close) who have now clocked times in 2010 faster than the world records that stood on February 1, 2008 (easy to spot that all but the efforts of Cielo and Alshammar are on backstroke):
Simmonds also swam a 2:06.79 200m, the 2nd best 200m ever a finger behind the great Krisztina Egerszegi, HUN; while Gemma Spofforth (GBR) clocked a 59.46 100m back, 0.02sec shy of American Natalie Coughlin's pre-Feb 2008 best.
Back to Cielo. Yes, that world mark of 20.91 still stands (as a world record for FINA and as the best we have ever seen in race conditions that do not match current race conditions). It was set by the Brazilian sprint king in December last year just before the ban on shiny suits set the sport of swimming back on an even keel (and even after a 21.55, sub-21 seems otherworldly ). But 21.55, a sparkling effort if ever there was one, is concrete proof that progress in the sprint club is real. In 2009, all we could truly say was that suits were helping many appear to be faster swimmers than the Sprint Tsar. Some didn't like the word appear, preferring to believe it was all the athlete. That view was bludgeoned into the pit of nonsense long ago, along with the view that sprint coaches in 2008-09 had found a new trick or two and programmes fit to make Touretski and Popov look like rank amateurs as that 21.64 was conquered by no fewer than 63 performances.
In a time of fairness renewed, Hawke and Cielo can hold their heads high and be proud of the work they are doing, work that is working, work that has made the Brazilian the fastest 50m man we have ever seen - no arguments. His effort is world No 1 for 2010 and World No 1 among men racing in textile suits. His part-time training partner Fred Bousquet (FRA) had held the helm of the rankings this year at 21.71, while French teammate Fabien Gilot finished second in Paris on 21.83, with Bousquet third in 21.95. The pressure on Popov's clock is on, with American Nathan Adrian on 22.01.
With all of that going on around him, Michael Phelps (USA) provided the kind of reaction to his own efforts that you would expect from the greatest swimmer of all-time. He had some solid swims, and wins, in the 200 'fly (1:55) and 200 IM (1:58.95), plus a relatively weak showing in the 100m free and a slightly stronger one in the 200m free (1:47.54) won in a superb 1:46.30 by French teenager Yannick Agnel (and there's more to come there...) ahead of a terrific swim from Sebastiaan Verschuren (NED), on 1:46.97 with an overtone of Hoogey hanging in the air.
Responding to reporters, Phelps said: "Am I upset? Yes. Very. When I'm upset, I think it's the best time for me to try and use that as a motivation. Hopefully it's a wakeup call. If it's not then I have to change a lot. I blame myself. You've got to be responsible for your own action."
Phelps, who raced at Charlotte a month ago, added: "It's kind of the same times that I went in Charlotte. I'm clearly disappointed, but it's my own fault. I know I didn't do the training when I needed to do it at the right time."
That statement appears to confirm rumours in the US that some days Phelps has been slipping in to do sessions of 2 and 3km before calling it a day on more occasions than is good for a man who has to face the likes of Cielo, Agnel, Biedermann, Lochte and others.
Phelps is staying in France for a week to train in Vichy, where the American swimming team will have a training camp before the London Olympics in 2012.
That target is shared with 18-year-old Agnel, who when asked about keeping Phelps at bay said: "This is so great. I still haven't quite realised what I've done."
Mid-Olympic cycle - and time rolls on.
