[PacMasterUpdate] Pacific Masters Update 27 August, 2006

[pacmasterupdate at PacificMasters.org]

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Magazine, please  go to the Pacific Masters On-Line Change of Address 
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	http://www.pacificmasters.org/admin/members/memberupdate.shtml
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UPCOMING MEETS
Whiskeytown Open Water
San Mateo SCM
MVM Alan Liu
Sac Sprint Pentathlon
WCM Pac Masters SCM Champ

The last open water meet of the season is at Whiskeytown, near 
Redding, California. It will be on September 10th. Information about 
the meet is found in the July-August Pacific Masters newsletter.

This year there are four short course meters meet. The first will be 
the San Mateo Marlin's Penthathlon September 24th at the Joinville 
pool in San Mateo.

The Mountain View Masters Alan Liu Short Course Meters Meet will be 
October 1st at Eagle Pool in Mountain View.

The 33rd Annual Sacramento Sprint Pentathlon will be held at the 
Schall Aquatic Center at UC Davis. October 7th

The last short course meters meet of the season will be the Pacific 
Masters Championships held at the Heather Farms Diving Tank, Walnut 
Creek California, October 13-15th.

OPEN WATER RESULTS
Results some of the open water meets have been posted on the web 
site. Results include the TOC Trans Tahoe Relay, the Santa Cruz Rough 
Water Swim, and the Cruz Cruise.

Thanks to the TOC and Santa Cruz Masters for organizing the meets.

OPEN WATER SWIM CANCELLED
The Oktoberfest swim that was scheduled for September 23 has been 
cancelled. This means that there are two fewer open water 
points-eligible events on the schedule. Consequently, this decreases 
by one the total number of swims that an individual can use to earn 
open water points for the open water points competition. If you were 
holding off on doing your
last swims for the last event of the season, that will now be Whiskeytown.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
The Pacific Masters September / October Newsletter has been posted on 
the web site. There is a list of all the age group swimmers of the 
year, the upcoming meets and other interesting items for Pacific 
Masters members. Thank you to Joanne Berven for putting editing and 
writing the newsletter.
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Pacific Masters affiliate
Lands End

Pacific Masters entered into a new affiliate relationship with Lands' 
End Apparel . Lands' End is a maker of fine sports apparel for the 
active person.

If you click on the link to Lands' End from the Pacific Masters web 
site (like the link above or the link in the navigation bar) Lands' 
End will receive a rebate from your purchase

The Pacific Masters Logo'ed shirts that meet officials wear are from Lands End.

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Have a good week

What Happened at Worlds?
There were 1440 Pacific Masters Swimmers from 93 clubs who entered 
the XI FINA World Masters Championships.  I appreciate all the 
support that swimmers gave by entering the meet.

Many Pacific Masters swimmers also helped with the running of the 
meet. I am very grateful as the meet could not be run without the 
timers, meet marshals and hundred of other jobs that had to be done 
so that swimmers would have a great meet.

I have heard from many US and foreign swimmers who said this was the 
best organized championships they had ever been to. This could not be 
done without the help of Pacific Masters swimmers. Stanford Masters 
is to be thanked as they sacrificed their pool time for 18 days so 
that the meet could be held there. There were also many volunteers 
from Stanford - Stanford also finished in sixth place in the Combined 
team high point totals.

On Monday of the swimming competition, Walnut Creek took care of all 
the timing. Walnut Creek also finished at the top of Combined High 
Point  Team scores.

Only this weekend have I been able to review the results of the meet. 
There were many Pacific Masters swimmers who had great meets. I will 
try to acknowledge them in a later Update. The times were blazing 
fast. In the men's 45-49 100 M Free a 1:00.00 would get you a 36th! A 
1:13.00 would be 151st.

I saw very little of the competition at Worlds. For me it was a blur 
that started on 1 August and somewhat ended with the completion of 
the Open Water Swim. The only races that I remember were:

The fastest heat of the 200+ Mixed Free Relay was awesome. I wanted 
to see that heat as some of my friends from Walnut Creek were in it 
and then looked to see who was on the Florida and Colorado teams. All 
the swimmers on those teams were at least a top ten swimmer. On the 
last exchange, Colorado's 61 year old Rich Abrahams had a 1.36 lead 
over Florida's 47 year old Rowdy Gaines. Could Rowdy make up the 
difference? He had 14 years on him. It was a very fast last fifty, 
with Abrahams holding off the Olympian. The World record was broken 
by almost five seconds. The first four teams broke the record. All 
the teams in the heat broke the meet record.

I saw the meets executive director Anne Cribbs swim the breaststroke 
and freestyle. She had fun.

I saw Debbie Meyer swim the 200 freestyle and I saw Jacki Hirsty win 
one of her events from the outside lane.

It looked like swimmers were have a great time in the tent village 
that sprang up on the west side of the aquatic center. There appeared 
to be a lot of trading of t-shirts and swim caps there.

On Saturday morning, I watched the USMS Fighting Flamingos win their 
match to secure the bronze medal, later that night there were four 
very good water polo games in the Avery Aquatic Center.

I did swim the 400 freestyle. If I would have swum it 39 seconds 
faster, I would have made the qualifying time. It did feel good to be 
in the water.

I would be interested in hearing any stories or vignettes about 
worlds and also if you were able to do well trading t-shirts or pins.

Please add your story to the forum section of the USMS web site:
http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6584

I would like to read about your experiences at the meet and the 
exciting races you saw.

  For those who would like to see great pictures of the meet go to
http://www.isiphotos.com

If anyone has pictures taken at the open water swim from the bridge 
with the houses and docks on both sides of the chute, I would love to 
see them.


-- 
michael
Michael W. Moore