The 10th Pan Pacific Swimming Championship is over. The highlight was the number of world records broken - six which is huge considering the number of swimmers missing the event.

The biggest star of the meet was Michael Phelps who makes a statement of sorts and sets up things for next year’s World Championships and then the Beijing Olympics nicely where swimming is concerned.

SI has more:

In Victoria, he lowered his world marks in the 200-meter individual medley and 200 butterfly, and led off the world record-setting 400 freestyle relay.

“It’s pretty much the first meet where I have been happy coming off of last summer,” he said.

The way records have been broken in swimming in the last couple of years has been astounding. With many more young stars coming through, the records will keep tumbling, possibly even faster in the next couple of years. A few young guns from Times Colonist:

Emerging American star Cullen Jones, who reportedly signed an endorsement deal with Nike potentially worth $2 million, won the men’s 50-metres freestyle in a meet record 21.84 seconds …

… Tae Hwan Park, the 16-year-old Korean high school sensation, won his second gold medal of the meet — the first two golds ever won by Korea at a major international swim meet. Park took the men’s 1,500 metres in 15:06.11 while 17-year-old Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, who graduated last spring from Claremont Secondary, turned in a solid showing by placing fourth in 15:13.44.

Cullen Jones is already being called the Tiger Woods of swimming and though that may be an exaggeration, the younger brigade cannot be ignored.

As far as the medal tally goes, US was the handsome winner. However, Australia wasn’t in full force for the event but do not forget China who finished number seven and had measly two medals to show for their participation was very weak as well.

The stage for some tough battles in the pool has been set.