No magical moment for Hackett in Beijing
August 18, 2008
Australia’s Grant Hackett was today swimming for his place in history as he attempted to do what he denied Keiran Perkins in 2000, three consecutive 1500m freestyle Olympic swimming gold medals. Just like Perkins he has come up one short.
The final today has seen Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli upset the great Australian distance swimmer. Mellouli took the lead at the 1100m mark and held on as a late rush came from Hackett. The margin at the end of 1500m was 0.69.
Mellouli’s winning time was 14:40.84 which was slower than the 14:38.92 swum by Hackett in his qualifying swim on Friday. Ryan Cochrane from Canada took third.
It remains to be seen if this is the end of the road for Grant Hackett after what to date has been a fantastic swimming career.
Australia’s 4 x 200m women claim gold and smash world record
August 14, 2008
In what had not been a good day at the pool so far for Australia the 4 x 200m freestyle team has changed all that.
Australia were hoping for three gold medals in the pool today. They have had to settle for one.
Swimming a world record time of 7:44.31, down from the previous record of 7:50.09, the team of Stephanie Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie have triumphed over China. The winning margin was 1.62 seconds. The USA took bronze.
France narrowly lead after the first leg with Coralie Balmy just 0.03 ahead of Stephanie Rice after the French girl clocked 1:56.57. By the next leg Australia held the lead and never looked back.
Other teams had individuals who swam faster times than the Aussie girls however this is a team event and overall the combination was too strong for the rest of the field. It was China’s Pang Jiaying who swam the fastest individual leg as she anchored the Chinese team with a 1:54.39 leg.
Stephanie Rice has now bagged three gold medals following her two medley gold’s she won on other days at the Beijing Olympic swim meet. So far all of Australia’s gold medals have come from the swimming pool and all have been won by the women.
Misery for Sullivan as Bernard takes gold in 100m freestyle swimming final
August 14, 2008
Don’t you hate it when you see someone break world records in the races that don’t matter. That is how it has panned out for Australia’s Eamon Sullivan in the men’s 100m freestyle at the Beijing Olympics.
Sullivan had broken the world record in the first leg of the 4 x 100m freestyle final a few days ago. He saw France’s Alain Bernard snatch it away from him in the first semi of the 100m freestyle yesterday. Sullivan then hit back and further lowered the mark to 47.05 in the second semi.
That set the stage for today’s climatic 100m men’s freestyle final. Sullivan and Bernard have been the hot swimmers in this event in 2008. Each held the world record only to see it broken by the other man.
The two lined up next to each other in the final and after the first lap it was Sullivan who held a narrow lead as he made the first turn with a time of 22.48. The Frenchman was just 0.05 behind.
You had the feeling that the gold was going to be won by a narrow margin, and that it was. Bernard came home in 24.68 compared with Sullivan’s time of 24.84. That gave him a margin of 0.11over his Australian opponent.
Bernard was triumphant, Sullivan looked on stunned. After all the build up, the world records and the expectation he was going home with the silver.
The old saying goes ”You can break world records anytime however you can only win an Olympic gold every four years.” Has Sullivan missed his chance? I am sure he would trade all the world records for the gold.
Congratulations to Alain Bernard the men’s 100m freestyle champion at the Beijing Olympic games. It was a race that lived up to expectations. A great one in the long Olympic history.
China wins first gold at Beijing 2008 Olympic swim meet
August 14, 2008
The 200m butterfly race for women has turned out to be a glorious victory for the Chinese. They have gone one-two to win the first gold medal of the Beijing games in the swimming.
Australia’s Jessicah Schipper who is the world champion and world record holder in this event was taking on Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang from China.
In the semifinal Schipper had faded over the closing stages of the race. I was wondering to myself was she saving herself for the final or would she repeat this in the final.
Unfortunately there was a repeat of the semi performance in the final. Schipper went out hard and was under world record pace. She lead at the 50m and 100m marks. Liu made her challenge going to the 150m turn anad from there she pulled away from Schipper who was also overtaken by Jiao in the last 50m.
In the end it was Liu who powered to the wall to not only win China’s first swimming gold at the Beijing Olympics but she also set a new world record with a time of 2:04.18. This was well under Schipper’s previous mark of 2:05.40.
This was a fantastic result for China.
My psychic powers help Trickett qualify for 100m freestyle final
August 14, 2008
I do not claim to be a psychic but it is funny how things worked out this morning in the semifinals of the 100m women’s freestyle.
Libby Trickett had put in a swim where she swam 54.10 seconds to touch the wall in fourth place in the first semi. I was thinking that she could miss out on the final with that time.
Next up was the second semifinal. At the start of this I was thinking it must be time for a false start. As it turned out the girl from China swam a fast race and touched the wall first. Luckily for Trickett she had false started and this saw the Australian world record holder sneak into the final as the slowest qualifier.
It was a Pang Jiaying’s misfortune that allowed Trickett to sneak into the final.
For Rice it is twice as nice after 200 medley gold
August 14, 2008
In the women’s 200m individual medley Stephanie Rice has out sprinted Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry down the final 50m to win her second gold medal at the Beijing Olympic swimming meet.
Rice turned a 0.09 deficit to Coventry at the final turn into a 0.14 winning margin. To give Rice something extra to celebrate she also lowered the world record she set at the Australian Olympic swim team trials in March. The new world record is 2:08.45.
In the final lap Rice swam the freestyle leg in 30.09 seconds compared to Coventry’s 30.32. It was only in the last few metres where Rice moved to the lead in this exciting race.
Katie Hoff who was once again expected to challenge for the gold did not live up to expectations and was squeezed out of third place by her USA teammate Natalie Coughlin.
Rice has done as best as expected at the Beijing Olympics. She has taken the individual medley double winning both titles in world record time. She can now let her hair down and enjoy the remaining days at the Olympics.
Phelps still on track for record gold medal haul in Beijing Olympics
August 13, 2008
Today in the Beijing Olympic swim meet Michael Phelps was lining up for gold medal four and five in his chase for eight at a single Olympics. He was also swimming for the most gold medals by an individual across multiple Olympics.
By the time lunchtime had passed in Beijing Phelps had become the most decorated Olympian of all time with eleven gold medals and two bronze.
First up for Phelps was the 200m butterfly where Phelps was once again not troubled on the way to gold medal four and his fourth world record. His time of 1:52.03 improved on his world record recorded at last years world championships which was 1:52.09. Second to touch the wall was Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh who was 0.67 behind the great one. Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda claimed the bronze in 1:52.97.
In the last race of the medal session the USA did as expected, they won the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. They did not just win it, they smashed the world record by over four seconds and went under 7 minutes for the first time. They stopped the clock at 6:58.56 compared with the old record of 7:03.24.
Phelps swum the lead off leg for the USA recording the race’s fastest split time with 1:43.31. He was then followed by the 4 x 100m hero Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay. The USA team were 5.14 seconds ahead of Russia in second while Australia grabbed the bronze.
Great Britain’s Adlington snatches 400m freestyle gold from Hoff
August 11, 2008
Katie Hoff has faded badly in the 400 women’s freestyle final to be pipped at the post by Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington. The final margin was 0.07.
At the final turn Hoff was more than a second ahead of Joanne Jackson also of Great Britain. Jackson came in third. Both swimmers were swamped by the fast finnish by Adlington who covered the last 50m in 29.18. This compared to Hoff’s time of 30.71.
Adlington was in last place at the 150m mark and second last at the 250m mark. It was from here that she made her move and picked off the other swimmers one by one before her surprise win.
The world and Olympic record holder, Federica Pellegrini of Italy could only manage fifth place. Her qualifying time of 4:02.19 that she swam yesterday when setting the Olympic record was faster than the gold medal swim time of 4:03.22.
This race just shows you that you need to finnish strong and go into the wall hard.
Mr Phelps is over the moon as USA win thrilling 4 x 100m freestyle relay
August 11, 2008
For a while it looked like Michael Phelps was not going to have a chance to win his eight Olympic swimming gold medals in Beijing.
France were the surprise leaders with just metres to swim in the exciting 4 x 100m men’s freestyle relay final. USA’s Jason Lezak swam an amazing anchor leg recording 46.06 to swim past France’s Alain Bernard in what was almost the last stroke. The winning margin was just 0.08
USA smashed the world record they set yesterday swimming 3:08.24 in today’s final. The previous world mark was 3:12.23.
Micheal Phelps swam the first leg for the USA and was second with a time of 47.51. Next up was Garrett Weber-Gale who swam 47.02. The third swimmer for the USA was Cullen Jones swimming a time of 47.65.
In a good showing for his individual swim Australia’s Eammon Sullivan broke the world record with a time of 47.24.
Australia took the bronze medal 1.67 seconds behind the USA team
Phelps on his way to record Olympic gold medal haul
August 10, 2008
Here is a summary of the first medal session at the Beijing Olympic swim meet.
Michael Phelps has smashed the 400m IM world record as he took his first step towards a record eight Olympic swimming gold medals at a single Olympics.
Phelps beat his previous world record time of 4:05.25 and set a new world mark with a time of 4.03.84.
His teammate Ryan Lochte was around half a body length from Phelps in the breaststroke however Phelps powered away in the freestyle to record a comfortable victory where he was around one and a half body lengths in front of Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh who won the silver in a time of 4:06.16, with Lochte taking the bronze.
Libby Trickett moved into the women’s 100m butterfly final with a win in her semifinal with a time of 57.05, just 0.03 ahead of USA’s Christine Magnuson. The second semifinal was won by Australia’s Jessica Schipper in a time of 57.43 ahead of China’s Zhou Yafei.
In the men’s 400m freestyle final Australia’s Grant Hackett took the early lead, at the 150m mark South Korea’s Taehwan Park moved to the front and was just 0.03 ahead of Hackett. 0.62 was the advantage at the 250m mark with Park ahead of Hackett. The Australian swimmer then faded as others came through.
Park pulled away to win the gold medal ahead of Zhang Lin from China and USA’s Larsen Jenson. Park’s winning time was 3:41.86 which is still more than a second off Ian Thorpe’s world record of 3:40.08
Stephanie Rice claimed Australia’s first gold medal at the Beijing Olympic games with a win in the women’s 400m individual medley. It was Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry who tested Rice. Coventry was 3.83 ahead of world record split at the 200m mark Rice not far behind. Katie Hoff as the current world record holder was never looking likely to win. Rice won the gold in a new world record time of 4.29.45.
The last gold of the day went to the Netherlands in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.
Germany lead early in the race before the Netherlands made their move in the third leg. They took a half body lead into the final leg ahead of USA and Australia. The lead was 1.96 at the 350m mark and they held on for a gold medal in a new Olympic record time.
The first medal session of the swimming saw the gold’s shared across four nations.
