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  • men's comparative table
  • women's comparative table

    • world championships 2001 - fukuoka

    The swimming events for the world championships kick off this weekend in Fukuoka Japan. The British team is already in training in Hong Kong, following gone of the most rigorous selection procedures of recent years. only 27 swimmers are making the trip to Japan and will be aiming to realise a significantly improved medal haul and performance, compared to that in Sydney. Gary VanderMeulen, in his interview with pullbuoy believed that the lack of top three ranked swimmers was largely the cause for the zero Olympic medal haul. To see whether this is the case this time, we have prepared a comparison of all of the British swimmers with the current top 3 ranked swimmers in the world in each event. This shows a massively improved position compared to this time last year with 7 swimmers currently ranked in the top 3. But does this mean that we will win more medals? Not necessarily, but of course the chances must be better. It will also come down to the other major criticism leveled at the Olympic team of their inability to perform on the day. Bill Sweetenham has been pressing for swimmers to perform at their best in heat swims, something that has failed to happen all to frequently in the past, based on the premise that you can't win a medal if you don't make the semi final, let alone the final. Certainly events such as the recent super grand prix, and the expectation of Sweetenham that swimmers should swim close to their personal best in heats, have exposed our swimmers to having to make the times with their first swim.

    So, with all this in place, now is the time of reckoning, will their preparation of the team have improved sufficiently? Will everyone perform on the day? No-one can answer these questions yet, but I predict that Britain will not return with no medals. Our best hopes would seem to be Mark Foster, Alison Sheppard, Graeme Smith and the Women's 4x200m relay team, where three of the team members are ranked in the top ten on the current rankings. There are also realistic chances of medals from Rebecca Cooke, Jo Fargus and Sara Price but maybe someone else will step into the limelight and gain an unexpected medal.

    other relevant links:
  • ASA GB swimming team page
  • Swimming shcduel and British entrants
  • The official World Championships site
  • Current world rankings
    british men - entrants versus world rankings

    women's comparative table

    event world ranking british ranking
    50 freestyle
    1. 21.91 Alexander Popov, RUS
    2. 22.13 Mark Foster, GBR
    3. 22.18 Anthony Ervin, USA
    		2. 22.13 Mark Foster, GBR
    200 freestyle
    1. 1:44.69 Ian Thorpe, AUS
    2. 1:47.22 Grant Hackett, AUS
    3. 1:47.54 Pieter vdHoogenband,NED
    		5. 1:48.10 Paul Palmer, GBR
    400 freestyle
    1. 3:40.76 Ian Thorpe, AUS
    2. 3:45.46 Grant Hackett, AUS
    3. 3:47.21 Massi Rosolino, ITA
    		9. 3:50.47 James Salter, GBR
    10. 3:50.53 Edward Sinclair, GBR
    800 freestyle
    1. 7:41.59 Ian Thorpe, AUS
    2. 7:44.57 Grant Hackett, AUS
    3. 7:56.39 Chad Carvin, USA
    		7. 7:57.93 Graeme Smith, GBR
    12. 8:01.77 Adam Faulkner, GBR
    1500 freestyle
    1. 14:49.30 Grant Hackett, AUS
    2. 15:02.43 Alexei Filipets, RUS
    3. 15:03.15 Graeme Smith, GBR
    		3. 15:03.15 Graeme Smith, GBR
    50 Backstroke
    1. 25.66 Josh Watson, AUS
    2. 25.72 Lenny Krayzelburg, USA
    3. 25.74 Stev Theloke, GER
    		7. 25.91 Neil Willey, GBR
    50 Breastroke
    1. 27.39 Ed Moses, USA
    2. 27.49 Anthony Robinson, USA
    3. 27.66 Oleg Lisogor, UKR
    		4. 27.79 James Gibson, GBR
    100 breastroke
    1. 1:00.29 Ed Moses, USA
    2. 1:00.81 Brendan Hansen, USA
    3. 1:01.22 Anthony Robinson, USA
    		7. 1:01.52 Darren Mew, GBR
    200 breastroke
    1. 2:10.40 Ed Moses, USA
    2. 2:12.40 Jim Piper, AUS
    3. 2:12.63 Dimitri Komornikov, RUS
    		5. Ian Edmond, GBR
    50 Butterfly
    1. 23.85 Geoff Huegill, AUS
    2. 23.85 Lars Frolander, SWE
    3. 23.86 Thomas Rupprath, GER
    		10. 24.12 Mark Foster, GBR

    Note: tables based on the latest rankings (26 june 2001) available at swimnews


    british women - entrants versus world rankings

    men's comparative table

    event world ranking british ranking
    50 freestyle
    1. 24.72 Sandra Volker, GER
    2. 24.85 Inge de Bruijn, NED
    3. 25.03 Therese Alshammar, SWE
    		4. 25.07 Alison Sheppard, GBR
    200 freestyle
    1. 1:59.02 Claudia Poll, CRC
    2. 1:59.18 Yu Yang, CHN
    3. 1:59.32 Nicola Jackson, GBR
    		3. 1:59.32 Nicola Jackson, GBR
    5. 1:59.65 Karen Pickering, GBR
    800 freestyle
    1. 8:32.20 Diana Munz, USA
    2. 8:32.61 Hua Chen, CHN
    3. 8:32.82 Kaitlin Sandeno, USA
    		6. 8:34.91 Rebecca Cooke, GBR
    1500 freestyle
    1. 16:21.32 Hannah Stockbauer, GER
    2. 16:21.75 Rebecca Cooke, GBR
    3. 16:21.94 Peggy Buchse, GER
    		2. 16:21.75 Rebecca Cooke, GBR 16. 16:42.18 Nathalie Brown, GBR
    50 Backstroke
    1. 28.30 Sandra Volker, GER
    2. 28.68 Dyana Calub, AUS
    3. 28.73 Nina Zhivanevskaya, ESP
    		15. 29.33 Sarah Price, GBR
    100 backstroke
    1. 1:01.28 Mai Nakamura, JPN
    2. 1:01.32 Natalie Coughlin, USA
    3. 1:01.32 Sarah Price, GBR
    		3. 1:01.32 Sarah Price, GBR
    9. 1:02.07 Katy Sexton, GBR
    200 backstroke
    1. 2:10.99 Reiko Nakamura, JPN
    2. 2:11.04 Joanna Fargus, GBR
    3. 2:11.62 Diana Mocanu, ROM
    		2. 2:11.04 Joanna Fargus, GBR
    4. 2:11.65 Katy Sexton, GBR
    50 Breastroke
    1. 31.45 Xuejuan Luo, CHN
    2. 31.50 Sarah Poewe, RSA
    3. 31.62 Zoe Baker, GBR
    		3. 31.62 Zoe Baker, GBR
    100 breastroke
    1. 1:07.42 Xuejuan Luo, CHN
    2. 1:07.96 Leisel Jones, AUS
    3. 1:07.99 Tarnee White, AUS
    		13. 1:09.64 Jaime King, GBR
    200 breastroke
    1. 2:22.99 Hui Qi, CHN
    2. 2:26.29 Olga Bakaldina, RUS
    3. 2:26.37 Xuejuan Luo, CHN
    		12. 2:28.10 Jaime King, GBR
    50 Butterfly
    1. 26.51 Inge de Bruijn, NED
    2. 26.64 Therese Alshammar, SWE
    3. 26.78 Otylia Jedrzejczak, POL
    		6. 27.05 Alison Sheppard, GBR
    200 butterfly
    1. 2:07.32 Petria Thomas, AUS
    2. 2:09.14 Annika Mehlhorn, GER
    3. 2:10.11 Yuko Nakanishi, JPN
    		4. 2:10.21 Georgina Lee, GBR

    Note: tables based on the latest rankings (26 june 2001) available at swimnews


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