INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 30. BLUEFISH Swim Club's Elizabeth Beisel talks about the relief of adding the 200 IM to her world championship schedule after placing second in the event at the 2013 USA Swimming nationals.
Beisel admits that she was “freaking out” about not having a warm-up race to prepare for her signature 400 IM at the World Championships, after missing the team in the 200 backstroke. However, although she says it's a bit “weird” to have made the team in the 200 IM, she's happy to be able to focus her training on just IM leading into Barcelona.
Women's 200 IM recap: Olympic bronze medalist Caitlin Leverenz finally punched her ticket to Barcelona with a victory in the women's 200-meter IM to close out the U.S. Nationals and World Championship Trials for the Golden Bear. Leverenz blasted a time of 2:10.13 for the win, moving to fourth in the world rankings in the process. That swim put her behind only Alicia Coutts (2:08.63), Ye Shiwen (2:09.08), and Katinka Hosszu (2:09.75) so far this year. Also, she has more in the tank heading into Barcelona as she clocked a sterling lifetime best of 2:08.95 at the 2012 London Games.
Seven-year National Team veteran Elizabeth Beisel of BlueFish took down the second spot on the Barcelona squad with a second-place time of 2:12.11. Look for the 400 IM Olympic silver medalist to ratchet her performance up in a month at Worlds.
