Walsh kicks off swim bid, eyes semis

BEIJING – Fil-American James Walsh will try to surpass his own Philippine and Southeast Asian Games records as he kicks off the Olympic stint of five US-based swimmers in the star-studded swimming competitions today at the National Aquatics Center, better known as the Water Cube.

Walsh competes in the second heat of the 200m butterfly with a personal best of two minutes, 00. 42 seconds which he will try to better to become the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to break the two-minute barrier and get a crack at the semifinals.

“His best time will be a new RP and SEA Games record. I think he will go below two minutes,” said swimming president Mark Joseph.

“In his heat, if he breaks the 2:00:00 mark he will bring the SEA Games to a higher level,” he added.

Breaching the barrier is tough enough. Making the semifinals will be even tougher.

Walsh’s time is 103rd fastest in the world and 86 swimmers this year have a clocking below 2:00.00.

The good news is that the 21-year-old Walsh, coached by Seoul Olympic gold medalist Anthony Nestey at Fort Lauderdale in Florida, will be swimming with the lower group of swimmers in his heat. He will occupy the fourth lane reserved for the player with the second best personal time, with Vladan Markovic of Serbia (2;00.36) on the fifth lane.

But the eyes of spectators will be on lane 4 in the sixth heat where the fastest swimmers are assigned and where American Michael Phelps, virtually assured of a berth in the finals, will try to break the record he first set when he was only 15 years old six years ago.

With the world watching to see if Phelps will break Mark Spitz’s seven-gold-medal haul in 1972 American networks holding Olympic TV rights have prevailed upon the organizers to hold all heats at night and the semifinals and finals in the morning to coincide with prime time in the US.

The 200m butterfly is, in fact, the foundation of the success of Phelps, whose arm span exceeds his height by seven centimeters.

Since 2001, Phelps set new norms in the 200m butterfly with clockings of 1:54.92, 1:54.58, 1:53.93, 1::53.80, 1:53.71 and the current mark of 1:52.95 he set in Melbourne in March, 2007. Walsh’s time is 2:00.42.

When told that the time of Phelps is 1:52 and Walsh’s is 2:00.42, Joseph could not hide his astonishment.

“Jesus Christ, is that the record!” he said.

The top 16 after the heats advance to the semifinals, from which the top 8 enter the medal round.