melbourne2007

melbourne 2007 – going the distance


David Davies: fighting back to fitness
photo © Steve Buckley/pullbuoy

For most of the past decade it has been one of the most predictable races at a major championship, with Grant Hackett the undisputed king of the metric mile, but heading into these World Championship it is starting to become one of the most interesting events that will be contested in the temporary pool at Rod Laver Arena.

Since the Perth World Championships in 1998, swimming fans have become accustomed to seeing the great Australian heading the field home in the 1500m. Indeed his dominance in the event is such that his official FINA biography, which extends for the past 10 years, doesn’t even show a 2nd placed finish in the event at a major competition. He was and remains a phenomenon over the distance.

But recently there have been signs that the chasing pack has been closing the gap slightly. Not least in Athens when Larsen Jensen and our own David Davies pushed Hackett all the way to the wall. The same pair repeated the trick in Montreal two years ago but still couldn’t quite match the master.

This year things could be different. All three of the main protagonists from 2004 and 2005 missed much of 2006 with injuries, not that it stopped Hackett and Davies from posting sub 15 minute times at the tail end of the year to assure themselves of spots in Melbourne. Jensen found it tougher, coming home in, for him, a disappointing 15.11 at the US trials last August.

But while the cat’s away the mice will play, and the rest of the world’s distance freestylers made the most of their chance in the limelight. Yuri Prilukov, fourth placed at the last two global meets almost matched his best with a 14:51.62 performance in Budapest, while Pole Mateusz Sawrymowicz and Frenchman Sebastian Roualt added themselves to the sub 15 minute club with times of 14.52.76 and 14.55.73 respectively.


Tae-Hwan Park: new kid on the block
photo © Dan Mitchell/pullbuoy

Meanwhile, chasing Hackett home at the Australian Trials in December, Craig Stevens posted 15:00.69 and according to Hackett himself, will break 15 minutes in Melbourne. At the same time, Korea’s Tae Hwan Park inked a 14.55.03 effort into the books at the Asian Games. Park is the most interesting of this new crop, with Korea not well known for producing elite swimmers. What is clear is that he has excellent technique and would appear to have a temperament to match.

All this brings together the prospect of a final with 8 men under 15-minutes, which in itself is an astonishing thought, given that only 18 men have ever achieved the feat. At the head of that list, and on paper at least, the established Hackett-Jensen-Davies triumvirate still have clear water between themselves and this new wave of challengers, but the depth of talent assembling in Australia brings forward the prospect of a mouth-watering 1500m final on the closing day of competition.

Only the swimmers themselves will know how well they are swimming, especially those returning from injury lay offs, but Prilukov for one has made his intentions clear by stating that he believes he can lower his lifetime best by 10 seconds. To win a medal it seems likely that he will have to – and that could push the field back down towards world record territory.