On This Day In History - When Berry, Phelps & Trickett Went Barrier-Breaking
Timeline - The SOS Daily Trawl of official World long-course records (plus all pre 1954 standards, all pools and metrics) set this day throughout history.
March 29, and we celebrate three barrier-breakers, the first sub-2:07 in the men's 200 'fly, the first sub-1:55 in the men's 200IM and the first sub-24 in the women's 50m freestyle:
Michael Phelps' swim at the Melbourne 2007 World Championships was part of what remains one of the greatest championship campaigns of all time. It marked the moment when Phelps did for medley what another American multi-gold pioneer, Don Schollander, had done for freestyle in 1968, when he broke his 1:55.7 world mark and left it at 1:54.8 in heats at the U.S. Olympic trials in Long Beach.
And talking of the 200m free, March 27 marked the day when that event saw two of the greatest four-length swims ever: At the 2001 Australian championships in Hobart, Ian Thorpe took the pace of the event below 1:45 for the first time in history, with a 1:44.69 that broke the 1:45.35 in which the Eindhoven Express, Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband had steamed to Olympic gold ahead of the home favourite at Sydney 2000. That would be the last time Hoogie beat Thorpey over four lengths. The Australian's mark on March 27, 2001, was his fifth World record in the event, and the calm before the storm of his sixth: 1:44.06 for the world title in Fukuoka later that year.
Six years on, and beyond bronze at Athens 2004 behind Thorpe and vd Hoogenband in what Phelps would later describe as one of the loses that taught him more about self, zeal and goal-setting than any of his victories, the American took the 200m free standard below 1:44 for the first time, again, as part of that astonishing campaign at 2007 Worlds in Melbourne.
Craig Lord
A 40th birthday file, including our 'Planet Phelps' archive:
Craig Lord
March 27, 2008 witnessed the first sub-53sec in the women's 100m freestyle at the dawn of shiny suits: Libby Trickett (nee Lenton) clocked 52.88 at the nationals in Sydney. By the time the shiny suits era was over on January 1, 2010, the standard would stand at 52.07 to Germany's Britta Steffen, who described the feeling of the non-textile garments as being 'like a motorboat'. Her mark would stand for seven years intil another Australian, Cate Campbell, took it down in 52.06 at the Australian grand prix in Brisbane, with Dawn Fraser there to congratulate her on the poolside as she left the water. Profiles of Libby, Kevin and the pioneers below, will be added to our SOS Hall of Fame in due course.
March 28
In between those date above, we go back to 1911 and find Charles Daniels, USA, wiping almost 5 seconds off the global 200m free standard with a 2:25.4 that confined the 2:30.0 of Australian Frank Beaurepaire, set 9 September 1910 in Exeter, in the United Kingdom. Daniels' mark would survive until fellow American Norman Ross clocked 2:21.6 on 24 November 1916, a mark that will celebrate its 110th anniversary later this year.
