Month: August 2022

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LEN Masters Swimming Championships – Day 1

The LEN Masters Swimming Championships are now in full swing with racing on day 1 completed – the 800m freestyle for both women and men.

So how did they go?  Two LEN Records – one female and one male, a high standard of racing and great times across the genders and most age groups.

And now, turning to the winning times. The table below sets out the winning time in each age group. Times in Bold are the new LEN records.

An impossible task, to report on the results from 26 age categories, so here are the links to the downloadable results for each gender.

Results day 1 – including splits

FINA Point* comparisons

FINA points for age group winning times are a great comparative indicator of the standard of each age group competition at the championships. The benchmark for each age group and gender is the FINA world record for the event as at 31 December of 2021.

The table that follows sets out the FINA points achieved by the winning time in each age group.

The average FINA points for the winners in the age categories were 852 for the men and 784 for women. The FINA points for the LEN Record breakers are displayed in bold.

To get a better understanding of the quality of the results, a comparison to the 2022 Australian championships results may help.  At those championships, conducted at the site of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, the average FINA points of the winners, with the events conducted in short-course mode, were 673 compared to 852 LEN for men, and 624, compared to 784 LEN for the women.   As one would expect, the standard at the LEN Championships was significantly higher and the points confirm that conclusion.

So that’s a bit of a look at the LEN Masters Swimming championships, Day 1.

Day 2 events are the men’s and women’s 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly. You can follow the results and the live stream from here.

* To avoid any confusion, mywaterworld.life points out that the downloadable LEN results include world record times (WR).  These are the WR times at the date of the LEN Championships. These may not be the same times used in the FINA points calculation, which, for Long Course events are the WR times at 31 December 2021.

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European Masters Swimming Championships*

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Pool Racing starts Sunday, 28 August.

If you are on the Australian east coast, remember the 8hr time difference. With racing starting in Rome at say 9:00 am, that equates to a 5:00 pm start on the Aus. east coast.

Five thousand competitors – now that is a sizeable meet so plenty of racing, starting with the 800s on Sunday. You can get the full racing schedule from here.

The championships are being conducted in two pools – the Centro Federale UNIPOL BluStadium di Pietralata and the Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto – takes some of us back to the 1960 Rome Olympics as that is the main site of the refurbished complex for these championships.

Racing is being live-streamed from both the competition pools.
Stadio Olympico – live stream and schedule
Stadio di Pietralata – live stream and schedule

Both pages have event and access to heat lists so you can follow your European friends or check out the form of your competitors.

If you spot something interesting that you think mywaterworld.life should share about these championships , please contact us.

*The image used in this post is from a screen capture from the official championship site.

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Stretching – benefits abound

Travelling around Europe poses a unique set of fittness challenges, especcialy if you are a swimmer and need a pool to train in effectively. While there are many ways of staying fit, finding and getting to a suitable pool can be very difficult and time consuming.

And once you find a pool there are the local customs and pool specific rules, “interesting” admission charges and associated time limits.

 Walking double or triple the distances you normally do on a daily basis and then the sitting around at airports, hotels, parks and restaurants, all have their additional impacts on your physical and mental wellbeing.  Not to mention the interesting effects when you have not hydrated sufficiently.

All these “experineces” lead to greater than usual levels of aches and pains, stresses and strains, and muscle, nerve, and joint “tightness”.

The remedy, on top of getting adequate rest, looking after your nutrition and hydration, is to adopt a stretching routine.  Stretching following a workout should be, some would say must be, integral to your state of wellbeing and ability to continue your exercise and training regime.

You could even do some basic stretching in the evening, after making sure you are warmed up. And finally, get that well-earned rest and let the overnight regeneration work its magic.

If you want to know more about the benefits of stretching here is a good article to read.  Benefits of Stretching after Workouts – Diversified Integrated Sports Clinic (disc-me.com)

Needless to say, to maintain performance the older you get, a regular stretching and flexibility routine is imperrative.

To put into practice your commitment to start stretching, you could try these from the Mayo Clinic guide.  Slide show: A guide to basic stretches – Mayo Clinic. Go on, just make it a habit.