Grin, rise and shine
In a clear taste of things to come, the swimming finals were held in the morning at the 2008 Swimming China Open, a test event ahead of the Beijing Games
Although most swimmers finished slower in the morning finals than at the heats held in the evening, they said they would try to adjust for the morning sessions.
"I do some training in the morning sessions. I don't like the morning final, but there is nothing I can do. I just try to cope with it," said Sweden's Stefan Nystrand.
After American broadcaster NBC requested the switch to coincide with prime-time in the United States, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to move the swimming finals and some of the gymnastics finals at the Beijing Games to the morning.
Several leading swimmers have objected to morning finals, saying they would disrupt the established training patterns of swimmers, which are tailored to morning heats and evening finals.
Polish swimmer Otylia Jedrzejczak, who improved her performance by almost two seconds in the women's 200m butterfly final here, however, criticized the format.
"I felt tired, and even sleepy, during the finals," the Athens Olympic gold medalist, said, adding that she would not adopt any special training program for the morning finals.
But the change has already been accepted by some swimmers.
World champion Britta Steffen, who clinched three titles at the test event, said she felt no problem with morning finals.
"I don't have any problems with finals in the morning. I'll do my best whenever it is needed," said Steffen after she won the women's 100m freestyle at the test event.
She was also one of the few to notch up a better performance than in the evening heat.
Although adjusting to the training schedule, Chinese swimmers still seemed affected by the change.
Butterfly specialist Shi Feng, who snatched the men's 100m butterfly title, swam 0.05 second slower than he did in the heat, and gold medalist Xu Yanwei, 0.16 seconds slower.
"We have already shifted our morning training session from 9 am to 6 am... but it is still hard to reach peak form in the morning," said China's Qi Hui after she finished the final of women's 200m breaststroke in the last place.
Since the time has been fixed, officials said athletes should not complain any more but adjust to it as soon as possible.
"Nobody wants to swim the final in the morning, but as the IOC has already made the decision, players have to adjust to it in the superior interests of the game," chairman of FINA press commission Camillo Cametti was quoted by Xinhua News Agency.
According to Cametti, a number of high-profile swimmers have already started to adjust their training timetables.
"Athletes are very flexible people. They got enough advice of the change and they are all adjusting their training schedules," Australian Kevan Gosper, chairman of the IOC Press Commission, told China Daily. "Certainly in my country, which is a big swimming nation, all of the championships, since the announcement, have been structured on the principle of heats at night and finals in the day time. So far, there's no problem."
The German coach agreed.
"It's not a matter of accepting (morning final) or not, it's a matter of finding a way to be better adapted to the schedule", Orjan Madsen said on the sidelines of the China Open.
"I think the morning finals will have much less impact on swimmers than many people have predicted ... and believe me, whoever finds a way to be more compatible with the time format, wins," Madsen added.
