Weekend Swimming Results thus far...

So many meets this weekend and so little time. I just wanted to touch on a few of the ones that feature our favorites.

Over in Italy we have the Gran Premio Italia with swimmers such as Markus Rogan, Filippo Magnini, Mike Cavic, David Cromwell and Oleg Lisogor just to name a few. A lot of the European big guns and Olympic favorites are participating in this 3 city, 3 day meet. The format is a bit unusual in that some of the races are repeated in each city so if you had a bad swim Thursday, you can try again Friday and Saturday.

So far American's David Cromwell and Hongzhe Sun are kicking butt in the backstroke races with wins in the 50, 100 and 200 distances. Markus Rogan had a bronze medal finish in 100 Thursday and a DSQ in Friday's 200.

Ukraine's Oleg Lisogor and Italy's Paolo Bossini have owned the Breaststroke with South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh breaking through for a win in Friday's 50.

Brazil's Cesar Cielo has taken the title in the 100 free two days running with Filippo Magnini and Mike Cavic coming up second respectively.

And in a model of consistency Mark Foster of Great Britain, Cesar Cielo and Fred Bousquet of France have finished 1,2,3 in that order 2 days running in the 50 free. You can find full results on the Italian Federations website: Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Moving on up North to the Bell Grand Prix in Toronto we get a bit of a preview of Canadian Olympic Trials in a more traditional meet format. All the big names are there including past Q&A participants Scott Dickens and Joe Bartoch.

Friday's results included World Champion Brent Hayden (49.32) surprising no one with a win in the 100 free but I have to admit I was a little surprised to see Andrew Hurd (51.01)in the bronze medal position because I've always thought of him as more of a 1500 guy. I guess he's kind of Canada's version of Peter VDK. He does it all. Colin Russell (50.67) was the second place finisher in that race.

Mike Brown (1:02.63) took the 100 Breast title with Mathieu Bois (1:02.65) second and Scott Dickens (1:03.23) in bronze position.

Tanya Hunks won the 400 IM (4:47.71).

Keith Beavers had a great day with wins in both the 200 back (2:01.09) and 400 IM (4:21.37).

And last, but certainly not least, Joe Bartoch got a silver medal in the 50 fly, his time of 24.58 topped only by Thomas Kindler who won by .04 hundredths of a second with a time of 24.54. Jarryd Botha (24.98) finished 3rd.

Find full results from Friday and follow Saturday's action live on the Etobicoke swimming event site.

I'm excited to see how the 100 fly and 200 breast turn out today in Toronto and of course hope the American boys continue to dominate the backstroke races over in Italy tomorrow, although honestly I wouldn't mind seeing Markus Rogan win one. I luff him. The Zagreb Invitational and Brazil's leg of the World Cup start today as well. So much to distract me from studying!