Contributed by reader Leftathome
Tao Li clocked 59.73sec in the 100m Butterfly in Rome. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)
Singapore’s Tao Li clocked 59.73 seconds in the women’s 100m Butterfly event at the World Swimming Championships in Rome earlier this week.
If Tao Li had equalled her National and Asian record of 57.54sec in the heats, it would have placed her sixth going into the semi finals - just after Christine Magnusson in fifth who won gold at last year's Beijing Olympics.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom nearly cleared the oldest world record in the books in the heats of the women’s 100 fly when she swam a 56.76sec in heat 9 (she then went on to break the World record in the semi-finals).
That performance wiped out the meet record of 57.15sec set by Libby Lenton back in 2007, and crushed Therese Alshammar’s national mark of 57.56 set in July.
The effort came close to eclipsing the World Record of 56.61sec set by Inge de Bruijn back in 2000. The 56.76sec puts Sjostrom fourth all time behind de Bruijn, Marleen Veldhuis (56.69sec) and Lenton/Trickett (56.73sec).
Dana Vollmer of the U.S. qualified second in 57.15, just missing Christine Magnuson’s American record of 57.08sec set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Australia’s Jessicah Schipper touched third in 57.17sec, while China’s Zhou Yafei claimed fourth in 57.34sec.
Magnuson qualified fifth with a 57.48, while Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen cleared her country’s national record with a 57.58 for sixth. She bettered the 57.97sec set by Micha Ostergaard back in April.
So what do we make of Tao Li's 31st placing out of a high class international field of 102 swimmers? A breakdown of the statistics gives us a good indication.
Li's reaction time of 0.76 off the blocks was still faster than at least three competitors in the top 8 qualifiers for the semi-finals, including eventual world record breaker and world champion gold medalist Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden (0.79) and Asian counterpart, Zhou Yahfei of China (0.81).
It was her speed in the water that lagged a little - the Singaporean clocked 28.48 seconds at the 50m turn, and came home with a 31.25. This was to be expected as the feisty Singaporean had only been training at about 30-40% of her previous training load since January.
Tao Li has been studying for for the English Language Proficiency test she was required to sit only two weeks out from the World Championships in order to gain entry into the Auckland University of Technology's through train program at Singapore Sports School.
The good news is that Li's final split was faster than all but the top 11 in Rome, which augers well for her famous tenacity and fighting spirit.
We also know that in the 2008 FINA World Cup Series, after the Olympics and despite having had a break from training leading into the Tour, Tao Li put in bronze, silver and gold medal performances with comparable World Class times in the 100m Butterfly against several of those swimmers ranked in the top 16 at the current World Championships (Sjostrom, Alshammar, Veldhuis, Magnusson, and Ottesen included).
So, the final verdict? Don't write off the swim queen just yet. If she can stay in touch with only 40% training behind her, she'll be right back up there, (barring injury or illness, of course) come the SEA Games in Laos this December.
This is going to be harsh, but Tao Li’s swim was bad, no way around it. Someone of her class and stature shd be pulling in sub 59s at big international meets even with little training. her time is gd enuf to win the sea games, but that is because tao li’s level is way past the sea games. if she swims such 59.73 time at the asian games, she will get swamped by the likes of jiao liuyang, liu zige and yuka kato