 More world records go tumbling
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 08:52
Federica Pellegrini of Italy and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe set world records in swimming preliminaries at the Water Cube yesterday. In three days of action, that takes the number of world records set to eight. Pellegrini overcame the disappointment of her fifth-place finish in the morning's 400m freestyle final, an event in which she's the world-record holder, to set a record in the 200m freestyle prelims. She clocked 1:55.45, bettering the 1:55.52 held by Laure Manaudou of France. Sara Isakovic of Slovakia (1:55.86) and Caitlin Mcclatchey of Great Britain (1:56.97) had the second and third best times. Favorite Katie Hoff of the US was fourth best in 1:57.20. In the 100m backstroke semifinals, Coventry touched the wall a full shoulder length ahead of the chasing pack for her world record. She clocked 58.77, bettering Natalie Coughlin's mark of 58.97 set at the US trials last month. Coventry, who had set an Olympic record in the heats on Sunday, looked forward to going head-to-head with Coughlin in today's final. "It's going to be a tight final," she said. "Natalie's just so good at racing and planning out her races, so I just expect nothing but fast, fast swimming tomorrow morning." Meanwhile, swimmers continued to enjoy conditions at the Water Cube where Olympic records kept tumbling. Michael Phelps, after winning his second gold with the relay team in the morning, broke his own Olympic record in men's 200m butterfly prelims. He clocked 1:53.70, one second quicker than Laszlo Cseh from Hungary. In the 200m freestyle semifinals in the morning, Phelps swam a leisurely 1:46.28 to get to today's final. His was the fourth-fastest time; the best was countryman Peter Vanderkaay's 1:45.76. The Olympic record (53.41) set on Sunday by American Matt Grevers in the men's 100m backstroke was broken three times in yesterday's semifinals. In heat one, Arkady Vyatchanin of Russia clocked a new low of 53.06. Australian Hayden Stoeckel and Grevers went one better in the second heat: They touched the wall at 52.97 and 52.99, respectively. Stoeckel's time puts him only 0.08 seconds behind the world record set by American Aaron Peirsol in July at the US Olympic trials. Peirsol finished fifth in the semifinal with a time of 53.56. Australian Leisel Jones topped the heats in women's 100m breaststroke with 1:05.80. Agencies  (China Daily 08/12/2008 page10) |
