Sam Short Leads 800 Freestyle
Sam Short won the 800 freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships with a time of 7:37.02
Sam Short won the 800 freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, Calif, with a time of 7:37.02, the sixth-fastest performance in history. He holds three of the top eight, including the national record and textile-best time of 7:36.73 he set in winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in July.
Progress in the 800 Freestyle
The 800 freestyle world record of Zhang Lin from the 2009 World Championships remains an echelon above anything the world is capable of at the moment. However, the 800 free pack is closing in. According to two-time 800 free Olympic medalist and Wednesday's silver medalist Bobby Finke, the event has gotten really fast over the years.
Finke's furious final-100 rallies at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 ushered in changes in how others have had to swim the race. The inclusion in the Olympic program for the first time in Tokyo has also incentivized more swimmers to prioritize what had been a middle ground between the 1,500 and 400 confined only to the World Championships.
Comparison of Times
The times achieved by swimmers in the 800 freestyle event have been progressing. A comparison of some of the recent times is as follows:
| Swimmer | Time |
|---|---|
| Zhang Lin | 7:32.12 |
| Ous Mellouli | 7:35.27 |
| Ahmed Jaouadi | 7:36.88 |
| Sam Short | 7:36.73 |
| Daniel Wiffen | 7:37.00 |
| Ahmed Hafnaoui | 7:37.00 |
| Sam Short | 7:37.02 |
Future Prospects
Short is at the vanguard of pushing the 800 freestyle time further. Lin's time remains a massive leap ahead. However, the second-fastest swim in history was the runner-up at that meet, Ous Mellouli, the Tunisian going 7:35.27. That's next in Short's crosshairs, and a global reunion of the heads of the distance state next summer at Worlds in Budapest might do the trick.
Short said he thinks the second time by Mellouli is very achievable, given the right race. He also said that if he was right next to the Germans, they could have all pushed each other as well. Short's comments were reported by Swimming World Magazine, which covered the Pan Pacific Championships. The magazine noted that the standard is progressing everywhere, with Wiffen's European record being broken first by Sven Schwarz, then by German teen Johannes Liebemann. Short's time on Wednesday night was a significant achievement, and he is looking forward to racing his European counterparts next year.
