Jul - Aug 2002 View the PDF - Swimnews Online

Five medals for soon-to-be doctor Jenny Thompson (USA)out. It’s a lot easier to get off to a good start when you havesomeone to race. After last night, I was pretty confident Icould go after the world record, but I didn’t put it togetherlike I wanted to. You only shave two or three times a year soyou have to go for it when you can. You have to be happywhen you win though. It’s first things first.”“I was really happy with that. My plan was to stick withAaron and it worked well with that being my best time sincethe Olympics,” Welsh said. His time in second was 1:57.69,just off his best.Keith Beavers (CAN) was third with 1:59.36, a newnational record, after best times in each of the three roundsand a two-second drop from his previous best. It was the firstindividual event medal for Canada.Women’s 200 Breaststroke—Xuejuan Luo (CHN)was on world-record pace for the first 50 (32.57) and the100, but faltered on the second half to finish fourth. AmandaBeard (USA) added her second gold with a time of 2:26.31,with Leisel Jones (AUS) second with 2:26.42 and KristyKowal (USA) third with 2:27.59.“It was a lot of fun,” Beard said. “It was great to haveKristy up there with me. I’m very proud of how I swamhere.”Women’s 4x200 Freestyle Relay—The USA won intheir best-ever time of 7:56.96 with Australia second in7:59.25 and Japan third in 8:04.01.Natalie Coughlin led off for the Americans in 1:58.21,but the USA fell behind as Mary Hill split 2:00.92, but DianaMunz in 1:59.58 and Lindsay Benko with an even faster1:58.25 put the relay away.Australia was second after Petria Thomas’ lead-offtime of 1:59.77, moved into the lead with Elka Graham’s1:59.14 and Giaan Rooney’s 1:59.72, but anchor Alice Millswas not up to the task of anchor and her 2:00.62 left themover two body lengths short.Kurtis MacGillivary (CAN) improved more than 20 seconds inthe 1500 free after training with Hackett in AustraliaSWIMNEWS / JULY-AUGUST 2002“It was a great race,” Benko said. “We’reall looking forward to the last session tomorrow.Hopefully it will be another good one for theAmericans.”With one day left, the race for supremacywas over. USA had 42 medals (16-14-12) andAustralia was well back with 23 (9-11-3).Day 6, Thursday, Aug 29Women’s 100 Freestyle—NatalieCoughlin (USA) and Jenny Thompson (USA)were in the early lead and Coughlin came backbest (25.98 and 28.01) for a final time of 53.99.It was her best and only the second eversub-54-second 100 freestyle.Jodie Henry (AUS) surprised with hersecond in 54.55, a Commonwealth record and a half-aseconddrop from her previous best.“I didn’t think I could swim much faster than I did inthe semis,” Coughlin said after her 100 free win. “TechnicallyI swam much better tonight. I breathed every four strokescoming back. I was just hoping to do better than myNationals time of 54.6, but I can’t believe I did that muchbetter.”“Coming second to Jenny Thompson any day is a goodswim,” said silver medallist Jodie Henry, AUS.Cy Jariz Cyr/NewsportWomen’s 200 Backstroke—The favourite for theevent, Tomoko Hagiwara (JPN), already a gold medallist,collapsed after her semi-final, was carried off on a stretcherto be transported to hospital, and eventually was declaredunfit to compete both in the 200 back and the medley relay.In Hagiwara’s absence, Elizabeth Warden (CAN) sensed anopportunity for a medal. At the 100, Warden was still theleader, with Diana Mcmanus (AUS) second and ClementineStoney (AUS) third.But it was Magaret Hoelzer (USA) who maintained thestroke rating in the third length and was rewarded with thegold medal in a time of 2:11.00, more than a one-seconddrop from her previous best. She finished well ahead of thefield, with Japan’s Aya Terakawa earning silver in 2:12.28.Jennifer Fratesi (CAN) was third with 2:12.71, the secondindividual bronze for her team.“During that last 50, I was really glad I wasn’t gettingsuper tired,” Hoelzer said. “I wanted to go out fast, butrelaxed. I figured I’d be behind at the beginning and wouldneed the energy to catch up and it worked out for me.”Men’s 100 Butterfly—Ian Crocker (USA) was thefirst to break surface and Geoff Huegill (AUS) joined him atthe 25 mark. Then it was Michael Mintenko (CAN) whotook them through the 50 turn in 24.43. Crocker was secondand Takashi Yamamoto(JPN) third. Huegill turnedin fourth position.Crocker and Huegillcame out of the turn best andmade a race of it for the goldmedal. Crocker was the victorin 52.45, and Huegill wassecond with 52.48, one of theclosest contests of this year’schampionships. Mintenkowas third with 52.69, the thirdindividual bronze forCanada.“I was expecting to beout faster than I was in theMarco Chiesaprelims and semis, and I was,but I didn’t feel quite asrelaxed,” Crocker said. “I’m happy with the result, but Iwould have liked to have gone faster.”Men’s 1500 Freestyle—Grant Hackett’s time was1/100th of a second faster than that of Kieren Perkins’former world record as he claimed Australia’s 10th gold ofthe championships and his fourth in Yokohama with14:41.65.“It’s always nice to know you’re swimming that fastand I didn’t take the race out as hard as I could because ofthe hectic program,” Hackett said.“I didn’t feel drained at all, so I really can’t wait untilnext year (World Championships) because I am enjoyingmy swimming and the publicity the sport is gettingworldwide at the moment.”“I can take another 12 seconds off that. I want to gounder 14:30. I know I can do it. I’ll have to work my butt offand at the end of it, I’ll be totally exhausted and have tocrawl off the pool deck.”Hackett is in a class by himself as there were no sub-15-minute swims, with Erik Vendt (USA) in second with15:02.24 and Laresen Jensen (USA) third in 15:05.17.Kurtis MacGillivary (CAN) was seventh with his bestever time of 15:36.12. He has spent several months trainingwith Hackett in Australia.Men’s 200 IM—Michael Phelps couldn’t swim in the100 fly as it conflicted with the 200 IM and he made themost of it with a fast 1:59.70 win.“That world record (1:58.16) is one of the hardest,”Phelps said. “Jani Sievinen had an unbelievable last 100when he set that. It’s going to take a little more work if Iwant to break that. I’ll keep going after it.”Takahiro Mori (JPN) was second with 2:01.35 andTom Wilkens (USA) third with 2:01.17. Brian Johns (CAN)was fourth in 2:01.25, his best ever, but missed a medal.Women’s 4x100 Medley Relay—Australia upset theUSA with a 4:00.50 to 4:01.15. The big difference was PetriaThomas’ 100 fly leg of 56.94, the fastest ever. In additionDyana Calub led off with 1:01.98, Leisel Jones swam thebreaststroke leg in 1:07.51, and Jodie Henry anchored witha 54.07. With the Aussies having three faster legs than theAmericans, it was impossible to lose.“I knew I was up against Jenny. I just wanted to get asclose to her as possible to give Jodie the best possiblechance,” Petria Thomas said.Canada was third with 4:05.69, their first women’srelay medal, and it took a national record almost twoseconds faster than at Commonwealths to do it.Men’s 4x100 Medley Relay—The Americans wereout to avenge the women’s loss and did it in a world-recordtime of 3:33.48. Australia was very good too, with aCommonwealth record of 3:34.84. Canada was third with3:38.17, another national relay record.“It was a great end to an excellent meet,” AaronPeirsol said. “It was the best Pan Pac meet we’ve had inmore than 10 years. Everyone did their part and more. Ourrelay decided we wanted to step it up and get that worldrecord. We knew what we had to do and we were stoked. Itwas an excellent race.”“This was my first international relay, and going outthere with those three guys was more fun than I eventhought it would be,” breaststroker Brendan Hansen said.“This is a great stepping stone to the 2004 Olympics. We’lltry to ride this wave we created here.” (He split 1:00.14.)“Up to this event we didn’t see any world records at thismeet, so we decided to take care of that,” said backstrokerAaron Peirsol. He swam lead-off in 54.17.“I actually checked out all of the split times andeverything,” said flyer Michael Phelps. “Then we talkedabout it and all of us decided to go for it. We wanted it reallybad.” Phelps’ fly leg was 51.13, tied for the fastest ever.51