Pan Pacs Prediction Contest Results

1. AimsRos 710
2. Lala 668
3. Tinkerbell 653
3. Andrea 653
4. Dana Cara 642
5. Alison 638
6. Michelle 636
7. Sarah 629
8. Tim 628
9. nzswimmer 591
10. Lena 528

Congrats Amy! And congrats Lena! You get the super duper loser prize. I'm just so happy I finished middle of the pack this time. That may be my best finish ever.

Swimmers look ahead to Beijing after record-setting Pan Pacs

VICTORIA - On the final day in the pool of the Pan Pacific Swim championships Sunday, the fancy new Saanich Commonwealth Games scoreboard flashed the message: "718 days, 18 hours, 33 minutes, 28, 27, 26... seconds to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics."

Beijing came into view, at least for swimming in a big way at SCP with six world records set - five by the blazing American team.

"We've seen a lot of faces here that will be heard from in Beijing," said U.S. head coach Frank Busch, whose squad was one of several of the 19 national teams here who used the Pan Pacs as their qualifying meet for the 2007 world aquatics championships next March in Melbourne.

It was ho hum: Another day, another two world records at the 2006 Pan Pacific championships Sunday in the claustrophobic and sauna-like confines of a crowded SCP.

U.S. superstar Michael Phelps broke his own world record of 1:55.94 from 2003 by clocking 1:55.84 Sunday to win the men's 200-metre individual medley at the Pan Pacs, a quadrennial meet featuring most of the non-European swimming powers.

Fellow American Brendan Hansen also lowered his own world mark of 2:08.74 in the men's 200-metre breaststroke, set earlier this month at the U.S. national trials in Irvine, Calif., by winning Sunday in 2:08.50.

They were the fifth and sixth world record set in the blistering 2006 Pan Pacs and almost certainly establishes the Saanich pool as one of the fastest in the world.

Phelps set the 200-metre butterfly world record on Thursday and was part of the world-record setting U.S. 4x100 relay team on Saturday.

Fellow American Ryan Lochte was just 0.27 behind Sunday in the 200 IM as the two swimmers came charging to the wall amid the din.

"The crowd has definitely made a big impact ... and it's always a little more exciting when it's head-to-head like that," said Phelps, winner of six gold medals at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.

Brian Johns of Richmond was sixth in 2:01.71.

Hansen conserved his energy shrewdly in his race and was two seconds over his old world record by the halfway point and didn't appear as if he was going to break it on this night. But he powered through the final 100 metres like an aquatic version of a runaway locomotive to pull away from Kosuke Kitajima, the defending 2004 Summer Olympics champion from Athens. Kitajima was second in 2:10.87 and Michael Brown of Calgary fifth in 2:12.56.

"The plan was to take it out slowly and stay calm," said Hansen.

"It's hard to hold back in the early going but it was worth it. I pulled away in the end. We make it look easy but it's not. A lot of hard work went into this. The success of the rest of the U.S. team here fired me up."

Emerging American star Cullen Jones, who reportedly signed an endorsement deal with Nike potentially worth $2 million, won the men's 50-metres freestyle in a meet record 21.84 seconds.

"I couldn't ask for any more. Now I need to put more meat on these bones - more muscle," said the lanky Cullen.

Athens Olympics multi-medallist and 50-metre short-course world record holder Roland Schoeman of South Africa came into the Pan Pacs aiming for former Russian great Alexander Popov's 50-metres long-course record of 21.64 from 2000, but fell short in his quest and settled for silver in 22.12.

Canadian record-holder Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C., the Pan Pacs gold medallist in the 100-metre freestyle, captured the bronze medal in 22.22.

"This shows that my (national record) 22.19 at the Commonwealth Games (in March at Melbourne) wasn't a fluke," said Hayden.

Tae Hwan Park, the 16-year-old Korean high school sensation, won his second gold medal of the meet - the first two golds ever won by Korea at a major international swim meet. Park took the men's 1,500 metres in 15:06.11 while 17-year-old Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, who graduated last spring from Claremont Secondary, turned in a solid showing by placing fourth in 15:13.44.

Eight of the 19 nations won medals with the almost frighteningly powerful U.S. team winning 44 medals, a quietly emerging Japanese team 24, an under-strength Aussie squad 16, host Canada seven, Korea and South Africa four each and Brazil and a strangely quiet Chinese team two each.

In the gold standard, the U.S. ruled supreme with 24 gold medals to three for Japan, two each for Canada, Australia and Korea and one for South Africa. The Star Spangled Banner almost became the new theme song for SCP.

"The meet was so smoothly run that we just went out and had a blast," said American world-record setter Hansen.

It was a blast, for sure, and a blast-off out of the blocks. And it isn't over yet. The Pan Pacs open-water 10K - the event makes its Olympic debut at Beijing - was set for Monday on Elk Lake.

Then it's off to Southern California for the 2010 Pan Pacs. But not before a few stopovers on the other side of the Pacific in Melbourne next year for the 2007 worlds and Beijing the year after for that little five-ring party.