Geoff is now World 3rd fastest in the 50m Fly in 2010. Geoff swam the Butterfly leg of the 4×100medley relay and swam a 51.40!
The 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, attracted 336 competitors from 21 countries and served as an early guide to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Pan Pacs Men’s 50 flyHeats
Australia’s Geoff Huegill paced prelims with a top time of 23.27 (set a championship record) to move into second in the world behind only Spain’s Rafael Munoz, who clocked a 23.15 at the European Championships. South Africa’s Roland Schoeman placed second in 23.41 to move to fourth in the world, while Brazil’s Cesar Cielo took third in 23.48 for seventh in the world.
WR 22.43 MUNOZ Rafael ESP Malaga (ESP) 5 APR 2009
US 22.91 LUNDQUIST Bryan USA Knoxville, TN (USA) 18 JUL 2009
Preliminary Event No. 2
Rank Lane Year of Birth Time R.T. Time Time Behind
For the past week we’ve been at the University of California, San Deigo, putting the final touches together for the Pan Pacs and It’s been an awesome week. We’ve been blessed with amazing weather (that has really helped our tans) but it’s been good to really build that team sprit, the same sprit that was there when I first began swimming for Australia.
This room is set up as our massage/physio room. It’s also been set up as our signing room and with almost 90 members on the team; your wrist gets sore after 10 mins!!!!
After a long tour the end is now in site. We’ve arrived in Milan ready for the 5th and final meet of the tour. The pool is situated at the Harbor Club – a private country club in Milan. Previously its been known as the Giorgio Armani Swim Meet.
This meet will be swum as straight finals, meaning no heats – stand up and race, winner takes all.
I’ll start of with the 100 fly then finish the night with a knockout 50 series – 8 swimmers race every 3 mins, last 2 place getters knocked out till there’s only 2 left. Should be fun.
The bus ride from Barcelona to Canet was about 3hrs and again it was a comedy of errors! We were picked up from our hotel in Barcelona then we made our way to pick up other swimmers and teams. When we arrived to the second hotel, it seemed that the organising committee had got the numbers wrong. We had to leave about 8 people behind!!
After we arrived in Canet we headed to the pool for a light swim then back to the hotel for an early night.
Saturday 12 and Sunday June 13, 2010
Last night would’ve been the worst nights sleep I’ve had all tour. I woke up extremely tired and today, the 100 is on the 1st day. I realised that I had to clear my mind and race hard to secure a good lane for the final. 53.99. Consistent heat swim and 4th fastest qualifier. Job done.
In my final swim I finished 4th again with a 53.6. Overall I’m happy with that swim. 5 swims under 54sec. My back end’s (last laps) were strong which will be good for my 50.
For my 50 I finished off this meet with silver. 23.9. Once again it came down to a touch but this time my rival Steffen Diebler (Germany) had touched me out. Once again I’m extremely happy with my consistency of racing.
It’s been an extremely successful tour to date. The Mare Nostrum series is tough. It’s hard racing, morning and nights and tough traveling. As an athlete you learn so much about yourself. You have to get up when you’re mentally and physically tired. You realise that sometimes your not feeling good but you swim well and other times you’re feeling great but have a shocker (fortunately for me I didn’t have a bad swim).
A big part of my success came down to recovery. I was able to get a massage after every race – to flush out my muscles. Also the daily ice baths (as tough as it was finding ice) were a big help to my recovery.
On Monday the team will split up again. The other Australians will head home and my squad will head to our next destination, Pescara Italy. We will have a travel day then rest day then be back into racing again. There will be new challenges, new competitors and a new competition. I’m looking forward to it.
Wednesday June 10, 2010
I woke up today feeling ok. Not sure if I mentioned it last year but the pool is about 15mins away by subway. So, after packing my bag and having breakfast I made my way to the pool.
This morning I had the 50 and my approach was simple, race hard and qualify in a good lane in the final. Swim down, massage then hop back on the train and head back to the hotel to get some rest.
I mentioned yesterday that I tracked down some ice for an ice bath, unfortunately though the shop that sold the ice was a 10 min walk away, not that that’s an issue but when you have to lug 20kgs of ice back with you it’s easy to doubt weather it’s worth heading to the shop.
I had decided to make the effort. I knew that for a small amount of walking it was going to be worth it when I was laying back in the ice bath.
After my bath and lunch I had a quick nap before I headed back to the swimming pool to race the final of the 50.
Gold – 23.91. It was a good swim. Strong and consistent with my other heat and final swims.
After a big day like yesterday, we wanted to make our way to the pool, do a light gym session (to keep up the strength) then have a long easy swim, nothing hard, heart rate at 40 – 50bbm.
We arrived at the pool and it was already busy. In Monaco we got word that the US was sending a junior team of 90 swimmers and when we got there, instantly they were in your face. Carrying on in that typical USA, look at me, speak really loud, don’t give a shit about anyone else way. I must admit not all of them are like that. The senior guys are ok, they don’t have anything to prove but the juniors…. Plus there was everyone that went to Monaco and also the Spanish swimmers.
So once again, it was all about controlling what I could control and just letting everything else flow.
Training was painful, there’s only 1 pool and it was packed. It’s was like looking at a school of fish that had been caught in a fisherman’s net, white water thrashing about everywhere, arms, legs it was a sight I hadn’t experienced for quite some time.
The positives, the sun was shining and it was almost 30deg, I can think of worse place to be.
After training I was able to track down some ice and have another ice bath, also I was able to have a massage and straighten up. It was funny; we had to improvise, as the baggage still hadn’t arrived at the hotel, that ment the massage table was still missing!
When we arrived into Barcelona one of our team members was starting to come down with a virus, immediately he was put into his own room. Come afternoon, I was also starting to feel fatigued, I had decided it was best to rest back at the hotel. It was pointless catching the subway to the pool and fighting the crowd again.
6:45 dinner
7:30 team meeting, still no bags or massage table.
We kicked of racing with the heats of the 50 fly. In Monaco the 50’s are a knock out series. They start with the heats then the top 16 go into the next round which is raced at the beginning of the finals on Saturday night, of that, the top 8 race at the end of the finals. On Sunday night the top 4 race, then to finish of the meet, the top 2 go head to head.
What a day, today was one of those days where you just have to sit, stay relaxed and go with the flow.
We were picked up at the hotel at 7.45am and made our way to Nice airport. It wasn’t a bad trip, about 40 mins or so. Once there, we made our way to the check-in counter. It’s always tough moving large groups, especially swimmers and I’ve realised that when you travel in large groups it never goes smoothly. The organising committee had chartered a plane to take everyone from Nice (Monaco) to Barcelona. At the check-in counter we were told that our flight was delayed by 60mins, so instead of leaving at 10am we were to leave at 11am…. Or so we thought.
I wasn’t bothered, I had my laptop and the airport had free wi fi so I could chat to my family and friends and I also had packed my hard drive, over 100 gig of movies and tv… So, I was fine.
Last night, before I went to sleep, I was flicking through the TV channels and The Bourne Identity was on, only it was on in French. I realised that I had the series on my hard drive and that was going to be my movie of choice to relax while the chaos was going on around me – when you’re ever stuck in these situations, no huffing and puffing is going to make the plane come faster, plus I had 2 days to relax before racing began, I was happy to just chill and watch a movie.
11:15am and announcement came through that our chartered plane that was arriving from Barcelona had experienced technical difficulties and they had to switch the planes….. our new boarding time – 12:15pm. The airline had offered a 5 Euro voucher for everyone to get some food, all you had to do was show your passport and they marked your name off and presented you with this voucher to purchase a sandwich or something. It was like watching a stampede at a UN Convoy in a third world country….. people we’re coming from everywhere to claim this voucher. Within 30 seconds there was a line 20m long. I was shocked, I put my headphones back on and went back to my movie. Luckily I had muesli bars and snacks still in my bag from racing the day before.
12:20pm we made our way down the ramp to catch a bus to take us to our plane, when we got to the gate we had to wait another 20mins for the bus to arrive. By this stage you feel the tension as most people had had enough.
1pm finally loaded the plane, everyone was onboard and it was time to head off
1:05pm an announcement came over the loud speaker claiming that there was to much weight on the plane and they off loaded 1/3 of the luggage. Fingers crossed, hoping my bag was still on board.
1:40pm we finally left Nice.
3pm We arrived into Barcelona and YES, my back I could see my bag on the baggage belt, now we sit and wait for the rest of the team. After another hour of waiting and sorting bag tags we finally got on the bus and headed of to the hotel.
4:30pm checked in and finally unpacked, training canceled, afternoon off.
MONACO
I’m really excited to share with you my 1st Gold Medal of the series and also my 1st International Gold medal since 2002. I first won this event way back in 1996 – 14 years ago! I must admit, all the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears have paid off and It’s a great feeling. But before it didn’t come easy tonight.
Sunday morning I had the heats of the 100 fly. Last year my goals were to qualify for an A final in this event – this year, I wanted to make sure I was in. I finished my heat in a time of 53.4sec, fastest qualifier. I was pumped. It was a strong swim, technically good and felt great but I knew I had a big night ahead. I swam down, had a massage then back to the hotel for lunch and a rest.
Whist back at the hotel I had decided to have an ice bath to help reduce the inflammation. I filled the tub up with cold water and ice. It must have been at least 10deg…Brrrrrrrr. After 12 mins I got out, toweled down rugged up and had a sleep. I woke up feeling great, not sore but ready to race.
4:30 – top 4 swim off.
5:20 – 100 fly final.
6:30 – 50 fly final.
There wasn’t much time between races, I had to make sure that I was ready and to also make sure I had enough to replenish my system between races, ie protein shakes, electrolyte drinks, water, sports gels and muesli bars.
4:30pm 50 fly swim off – I knew I had to go pretty hard, when your race is swum and won in under 24 sec’s and only 2 go through, you need to secure your spot. I finished the race1st with a time of 23:95 sec, race one down.
5:20pm 100 fly final – I went into this race giving all I could. Good start but unfortunately it didn’t feel as good as the morning swim. I came away with a 5th – 53.84sec.
My goal now is to get ready for the final of the 50. My main competitor didn’t make to 100 final, so he was at a massive advantage but I had to put that aside and make sure I did all that I could to be ready. Swum down, light shake down (from the physio), kept the fluids up and also had some food. Stayed off my feet and just enjoyed the ride.
As mentioned I came away with the gold. 23.85, just .01 ahead of my competitor. It was close and came down to the touch.
Tomorrow we head to Barcelona for the next meet. We have a travel day, rest day then we’re at it again on Wed.
After a 5 hour train ride from Milan we arrived into Monaco. In instead of heading to the pool, Stollie decided it was best that we went for a walk to stretch our legs and we then did a light session in the Mediterranean Sea.
Tuesday June 1 (1st day of Summer) !!
Hi Guys,
Not a lot has been happening in the past week since our return to Busto. We’ve been taking it pretty easy in the lead up to competition, getting as much rest as possible and staying off our legs.
I’ve attached a few pics from our pool in Busto. At the moment the pool is indoors. From mid June the roof will slide back making the pool outdoors. The weather has been great. It’s quite cool in the mornings but during the day it’s been hitting high’s of 25deg.
After a just over a week here in Busto we’ll have to start packing our bags. On Wednesday after training we’ll be taking a train form Milan to Monaco and that takes about 4 hours. I’m starting to get pretty excited as once we get to Monaco, we’ll meet up with the rest of the athletes from Australia and we’ll become the Australian Swim Team. From Monaco, it’s only 3 days till racing begins.
It’s going to be a busy tour. 5 Long course swim meets in just over 4 weeks. Monaco, Barcelona and Canet (for the Mare Nostrum Series) then we have a few days off and head to Pescara, Italy to race. Following that meet we’ll be heading back to Busto for a week before we compete at the Milan Invitational.
Competition began on Saturday and it seemed like everyone from all over the world was here. The French, USA, Canada, Japan, China, Russia, German and the Dutch teams all bought are just to name a few.
This year, before the meet starts we’ve decided base ourselves in Busto, Italy. The boys came here last year before they headed into the World champs. The Australian Sports Commission have set up base here for ALL athletes that travel and race through Europe. We’re going to be here for 2 nights then take a quick trip to Switzerland to train with some of our friends before we head back to Busto then off to Monaco Wednesday week to kick off the competition.
On Tuesday 25th May we packed the car and headed north across the Swiss border to a sporting academy in Locarno. The trip took a little over 90mins. Here we caught up with an old friend, former AIS and Australian team coach, Gennadi Touretski. Gennadi is one of the best sprint coaches ever. He has coached multiple Olympic Gold medallists and world record holders including Alexander Popov and Michael Klim and is now heading up Switzerland swimming. We’ve spent the last 2 days swimming with his team and also learning from Gennadi.
The pool in Locarno is one of the prettiest pools I have ever swum in. Its situated in a valley surrounded by snow topped mountains. The grass is an amazing green colour and the venue is set up as Switzerland’s Institute of Sport. There is an amazing lake next to the institute and Locarno is home to Valle Verzasca – a massive dam wall that is over 220m high or for those who are fans of James Bond, it’s the dam wall the Pierce Brosnan jumped off in Golden Eye.
Sonar technology – There is a sonar placed in the pool that records velocity. We attach a belt that has a receiver and then we film and analyze our swimming for feedback.
Eamon, Andrew, Matt and myself ran a swim clinic here for the kids giving them the insights, tips and technical skills we use everyday to help “US” become the best we can be. Over 50 kids got to share a session run by us NSWIS swimmers. We did everything from warm up’s to main sets, kick and pull sets and also we shared with them some of our dryland Piltes program. I bet the kids will slept well when we left!
And just like last year, the Southern Cross Dragons treated us to their special cheer!
Building on the solid progress to my return to elite level swimming competition I have secured
improvements in my 50m and 100m Fly events.
Right now its not long until the Australian National Swimming Championship Titles & Comm Games Trials out at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre starting March 16.
The Trials are called “DESTINED FOR DELHI” as the podium winners will qualify for the October 2010 Commonwealth Games in India!
So it’s training and more training and a thin black line for company as I churn up and down the pool.
The great thing is that I train with a fantastic super squad team of mates under the watchful eye of our coach, Stollie.
Each day is about doing the best we can in every aspect of our training as we get ready to race for our lives.
And yep the intensity builds and the stakes get higher!
With the big question hanging over everyone: who will make it to Delhi in October?
Come out to the Trails and share the battle of wits, talent and speed!!!!
