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French Swimmers Hope To Ruin Phelps' Goal Of Winning 8 Gold Medals
BEIJING — The swimming record book will need some heavy revisions by the time the Beijing Olympics are over.
Two more world marks fell Monday morning when Kosuke Kitajima of Japan finished off American Brendan Hansen's hopes of an individual medal, winning the 100 breaststroke in 58.91 seconds. Kitajima pounded the water defiantly and let out a scream after breaking Hansen's 2-year-old record of 59.13.
Hansen was left without a medal, fading to fourth behind silver medalist Alexander Dale Oen of Norway and Hugues Duboscq of France, who took bronze.
Kirsty Coventry didn't even bother waiting until a final to set a record in the 100 backstroke. The Zimbabwean won her semifinal heat in 58.77, taking down Natalie Coughlin's mark of 58.97 set at the U.S. trials last month.
They'll go head to head in Tuesday morning's final. Coughlin won her heat in 59.43 with a nice, comfortable swim.
Five world records had been set through the first three days at the Water Cube.
Michael Phelps, who has already won one gold medal in record time, took care of another little matter in the 200 free, moving on to the final with the fourth-fastest time of the semis. Trying to save as much energy as possible for the leadoff leg of the relay, the American touched in 1:46.28 to finish behind teammate Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.76) and South Korea's Park Tae-hwan (1:45.99).
Jean Basson of South Africa also went faster in the other heat, winning in 1:46.13.
"I wanted to go 1:45, and if it weren't for that messed-up finish I would have done it," Phelps said, hustling off to get ready for the big race. "I just wanted to save as much energy as possible for the relay."
Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak were joining Phelps on the relay team, facing the enormous pressure of trying to help him get the second of eight gold medals. The French counter with a powerful team that includes world record holder Alain Bernard on the anchor leg.
While Hansen still has a swim left in the medley relay, he'll go down as one of the major disappointments of the American team. A one-time world record holder in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, he didn't even qualify for the Olympics in the longer race.
Putting all his hopes of beating Kitajima in the 100, he wasn't close to the Japanese star, finishing 0.66 seconds behind.
"I've just had a really off year, on a really important year," Hansen said. "I just feel like that's not the last you're going to see of me. I'm going to bring it back and I won't be done until I at least have a legitimate shot at those world records again."
Hansen swam over to Kitajima's lane to congratulate the winner.
"You've got to tip your hat to somebody that does something like that in a pressure-packed race like that. That's a hell of a swim, and he is a true champion," he said.
Coventry put down quite a challenge to Coughlin. Then again, Coughlin has been known to rise to the challenge _ when Hayley McGregory broke her world record in the prelims at the U.S. trials, Coughlin came back in the very next heat to take it back.
Now, Coventry has it, and Coughlin can't be too happy about that.
"I'm very excited. It was a great swim," Coventry said. "I just got to go home and take care of myself. It's going to be a tight final. ... Natalie's just so good at racing and planning out her races, so I just expect nothing but fast, fast swimming tomorrow morning."
Coughlin will be side-by-side with Coventry in the final.
"It went very well," she said. "It's exactly where I wanted to be going into the finals. I'm happy with that. I just need to recover and focus on my final."
Libby Trickett of Australia just missed another world record in the women's 100 butterfly, winning gold with a time of 56.73. American Christine Magnuson claimed the silver (57.10) and another Aussie, Jess Schipper, took the bronze (57.25).
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PAUL NEWBERRY | August 10, 2008 11:17 PM EST |
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