The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Peirsol, Jones set world records

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 31, 2005

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Peirsol, Jones set world records

MONTREAL: Aaron Peirsol and Leisel Jones both set world records to win their second gold medals at the World swimming championships on Friday while Michael Phelps collected his fourth courtesy of another American relay victory.

Peirsol lowered his own 200m backstroke world record to join Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett as the only swimmers to win the same event at three World championships.

Then Jones slashed 0.72 seconds off Amanda Beard's world record to win the 200m breaststroke final and add the gold to her win in the 100m earlier this week.

Australia's Olympic champion Jodie Henry also won her second gold this week with victory in the 100m freestyle to confirm her place as the fastest woman in the world.

Jones and Henry will team up in the medley relay where Australia will be heavily favoured to win another gold. Brendan Hansen completed the 100m-200m breaststroke double for the first time by winning the four-lap race on Friday.

Fourth gold for Phelps

Phelps put the icing on the cake when he teamed up with Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay and Klete Keller to win the 4x200m freestyle relay in a combined time of seven minutes 06.58 seconds to take the gold.

Canada finished second and Australia third after Hackett, winner of the 400m and 800m freestyle titles, reeled off a final leg of 1:44.84 seconds to grab the bronze for his country.

Peirsol led all the way to take the 200m backstroke gold in a time of 1:54.66, 0.08 under the previous mark of 1:54.74 which he set at last year's U.S. Olympic trials at Long Beach, California.

Markus Rogan of Austria finished second in 1:56.63 while American Ryan Lochte was third in 1:57.00.

Staggering achievement

Peirsol's victory was the latest in a series of staggering achievements that has made him the world's greatest male backstroker.

The 22-year-old Californian won the 200m backstroke at the 2001 and 2003 World championships as well as the 100m titles in 2003 and again this year. He also won three gold medals in Athens and holds the world record for both distances.

Jones stopped the clock at 2:21.72 to demolish the previous record Beard also set at Long Beach last year. Germany's Anne Poleska finished second in 2:25.84 while Austria's Mirna Jukic was third in 2:27.11.

Jones claimed the 200m world record from Beard for the first time last year but it lasted just two days when the American snatched it back.

Henry stormed home on the last lap after being third at the turn to take out the premier women's freestyle sprint in a time of 54.18, well outside the world record of 53.52 she set in Athens but still enough for her to add the World title to her Olympic crown.

American Natalie Coughlin and Malia Metella of France dead-heated for second place in 54.74.

Phelps laid the foundations for the American relay win with an opening leg of 1:45.51 to claim his fourth gold medal of the championships after his previous wins in the 4x100m freestyle relay, the individual 200m freestyle and 200m medley.

He has entered eight events but bombed out in the heats of the 400m freestyle and finished seventh in the 100m freestyle to ruin.

The 20-year-old still has the 100m butterfly and the medley relay but needs to win both to match Thorpe's record of six golds at a single World championship.

The results:

Men: 200m backstroke (final): 1. Aaron Peirsol (U.S., 1:54.66); 2. Markus Rogan (Aut, 1:56.63); 3. Ryan Lochte (U.S.) 1:57.00.

200m breaststroke (final): 1. Brendan Hansen (U.S., 2:09.85); 2. Mike Brown (Can, 2:11.22); 3. Genki Imamura (Jpn, 2:11.54).

4x200m freestyle relay (final): 1. U.S. (Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, Klete Keller, 7:06.58); 2. Canada (Brent Hayden, Colin Russell, Rick Say, Andrew Hurd, 7:09.73); 3. Australia (Nicholas Sprenger, Patrick Murphy, Andrew Mewing, Grant Hackett, 7:10.59).

Women: 100m freestyle (final): 1. Jodie Henry (Aus, 54.18); 2. Malia Metella (Fra, 54.74) and Natalie Coughlin (U.S.) 54.74 (tied).

200m breaststroke (final): 1. Leisel Jones (Aus, 2:21.72); 2. Anne Poleska (Ger, 2:25.84); 3. Mirna Jukic (Aut, 2:27.11).

Water polo: Women (final): Hungary 10 United States 7.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport