Pan Pacific Championships Day 4 analysis

Men's 800 Freestyle: Ryan Cochrane goes 7:48 in this little-swum event, 4 seconds off the Pan-Pac record set by the great Grant Hackett in 2002. Much slower than the WR (but I still have to espouse on my suit theory). La Tourette 2nd, VanderKaay 5th, Houchin 6th from USA.

Women's 200 IM: Australia's top female performer, Emily Seebohm, takes this one; sets a Pan-Pac record beating the world-record holder Kukors. Was Kukors affected by the suit change, or is this just not a world championships?

Men's 200 IM: Gee, I wonder who'll win this: Lochte does what I think is the swim of the meet, only 0.33 off his WR -- and that was with an American supersuit. He wanted to be the first to set a WR in the back-to-normal suits, and came close. In a totally unsurprising finish, Tyler Clary plays Joan Pennington to Lochte's Tracy Caulkins, finishing 2nd again. This final takes the prize for most unusual names; Pereira, Takakuwa, Rodrigues, Brodie (Leith), Hagino, and D'Orsogna (who's Australian, go figure). Ancient mariner Robert Margalis is 2nd in the B-Final.

Women's 50 Freestyle: Jessica Hardy knocks off Amanda Weir by 0.07. Great meet for the reinstated Hardy.

Men's 50 Freestyle: Nathan Adrian by a scant 0.02 over Brazilian flash Cesar Cielo.

The times in this event really bear out my speed theory on suit effects. More later.

Women's 200 Breaststroke: Rebecca Soni best Leisel Jones again, by a lot, and this one is close to a WR too, by about 0.6 second. Yummy (and still fast) mummy Amanda Beard is 5th.

Men's 200 Breaststroke: Godzilla, I mean, Kitajima, is just too much; gets a Pan-Pac record. Shanteau is 3rd.

Women's 1500 Freestyle: A 1.7 second difference is not much in a 1500; that's how much Aussie Melissa Gorman wins over comebacker Kate Ziegler. Ziegler's times don't match her bests, but that's a lot to ask still; it gets harder and harder to be a distance swimmer with age, I think mainly due to the brain drain. We'll see if Ziegler can still bring her times down -- but this was a pretty good milestone for her. A Chilean, Kristel Kobrich, is 3rd. I can use one finger to count all the prominent swimmers from Chile I've ever heard of.

Women's 400 medley relay: Coughlin, Soni, Vollmer, Hardy over the Australians, though they were behind after the breaststroke. Vollmer and Hardy were nearly a second faster than the Aussie counterparts.

Men's 400 medley relay: Despite his off-peak performance, Phelps buries the Japanese swimmer in the butterfly, giving the victory to the team of Peirsol, Gangloff, Phelps, and Adrian.

Quite a meet. There might be some thinking that USA Swimming is in a great place after this meet; it's good, but now the real work begins.