Sadly yesterday’s Swimwatch report told you that Ashby’s 100 butterfly swim of 53.73 was a personal best time. In fact it was faster than his entry time of 53.75 but was slower than the 53.72 he recorded four years ago in the 2015 NZ Open Championship. So no PB.

What that means is that as at yesterday the team’s PB ratio is 2 PBs (men’s 4×200 relay and Galyer 100 back) from 17 swims or 12%; not good at all.

I was disappointed to see Lilly King disqualified for a non-simultaneous two hand touch in the 200m breaststroke. The slow motion movie of her touch certainly seems simultaneous enough. Immediately rumours began to swirl. Had FINA disqualified the American because of her outspoken views on the Sun Yang affair? It wouldn’t surprise me if that was true.

A few years ago my daughter Jane was the NZ open record holder for the 200m breaststroke. She was at the National Championships competing in the 100m breaststroke heats. A short time after she won her heat a West Wave lifeguard approached me and said, “I think you should know that I have just taken the meet referee, Jo Davidson, down to the underwater viewing windows with the referees in charge of tonight’s finals. Davidson told the referees to watch Jane’s swimming and this is what she should be disqualified for tonight.”

I protested and Jo Davidson looked like she had been caught stealing the petty cash. Clearly Jane was about to pay for the sins of her father. In the final Jane won and was not disqualified. But after that, don’t tell me FINA officials don’t cheat.

You may be interested to read another Jane sporting story. It covers a topical subject of interest and importance to us all. Here is the link.

https://janecopland.com/2019/07/26/go-slower/

So what happened in Korea today? Did New Zealand swimming make progress on day six of the championship – Saturday 27 July 2019?

New Zealand swimmers in the pool were – Galyer (200 back semi-final) and Edwards (50 free).

Galyer swam in the semi-final of the 200 backstroke. She placed 12 in 2:10.19s and failed to qualify for the final. She was 0.42s away from her personal best time. Her ranking ended up as 12, an improvement from 19.

Edwards failed to make the semi-final. She was 37^th, 0.17s slower than her personal best time. Her ranking improved from 40 to 37.

After today’s heats the teams PB ratio is 2 PBs (men’s 4×200 relay and Galyer 100 back) from 18 swims or 11%; not good at all. With one swim to go the PB ratio may improve but is never going to get anywhere near the 50% plus acceptable PB standard.

Galyer was 0.79s (0.6%) behind qualifying for the final.

Edwards was 0.98s (3.8%) behind qualifying for the semi-final.

Excluding Galyer who qualified for the semi-final, the 17 swims by New Zealand swimmers to date have averaged 1.8% behind the time required to progress to the next round.

The New Zealand record in the women’s 50m freestyle of 25.01s would have been 15^th in the heats and would have qualified for the semi-final.

The New Zealand record in the women’s 200m backstroke of 2:09.13 would have qualified 8^th for the final. I’ve always said Melissa Ingram was better than she got credit for in her career.

Saturday 27 July