(Photo by Sina McCarthy)
Swimmer Weeden scores bronze in 50m breaststrokeAmericans struggle with starting light systemby Martin Dale-Hench on September 7, 2009 When swimmer Jessica Weeden looked at the scoreboard after her 50-meter breaststroke final, her lane was in fourth place. But her fellow teammates and coaches were yelling and cheering in the stands, holding up three fingers, indicating a bronze. At first, Weeden wasn't sure what was going on, but she later learned that the Belarusian swimmer who finished first had touched the wall with only one hand, which is illegal in breaststroke, as symmetry of the arms must be maintained at all times. That nullified her time and bumped the medal standings one slot, pulling Weeden from fourth up onto the medal podium. "I was surprised to hear about the disqualification," Weeden said. "But it's good, and I'm excited about my medal." Her time of 35.79 placed her behind Belarusian Natalia Deeva's 33.98 and Ukranian Natalya Korniyenko's 35.46. Weeden also improved her time from the preliminaries by .23 seconds. Weeden participated in another final, the 100m butterfly, before the 50m breaststroke, finishing eighth with a time of 1:08.58. Ekaterina Savchenko, of Russian Federation, gathered a gold medal in the event with a world record of 1:04.02. The Russian Federation shattered another world record in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, while the Americans showed a valiant effort in finishing fourth, bettering their preliminary time by 14 seconds for a time of 8:15.88. The Americans opened up in sixth, but Brian Bennett and Jake Hammack, swimming second and third, cut the gap and took the fifth-place spot from the Japanese. The Russian Federation broke the world record by seven seconds with a sub-eight-minute time of 7:56.66. Germany also finished below eight minutes, nabbing the silver in 7:59.99. Ukraine finished third in 8:06.18, and China took fourth. "I'm really happy to hear the times drop and personal bests being made," coach Bob Laughna said. "That's all I'm asking for." Daniel DiDonna got a personal best of 33.79 in the 50m breaststroke, finishing seventh in pool B of the finals. Weeden also set a personal best in the 100m butterfly, finishing eighth in 1:08.58. In the men's 100m butterfly, Hammack finished outside the top eight in the heats with 1:02:83. Although no Americans qualified for the final, there was some excitement for the race, as Russian Stepan Klimenko set a world record in the prelims. "It's going to be a exciting 100 fly final," DiDonna said. "Everyone's going to go fast." True enough, everyone went fast, but they simply rode on the coat-tails of Klimenko as he re-set his own record in 53.90. Italian Luca Germano earned the silver in 54.97 and German Bjorn Koch placed third in 55.73, all fast enough to break the previous world record. Elsewhere, some Americans struggled with the new starting light system. William Landgren had not yet prepared himself in men's 50m breaststroke when the referee flashed the strobe, jumping into the water two or three seconds before everyone else. "The referee put his arm down for the swimmers to set, and the light went off immediately," Landgren explained. "But I wasn't set yet. He was supposed to wait and look at every swimmer if they were ready before starting the race." By comparison, Landgren said, two years ago in Taipei for the World Championships, the pool had a red stripe on each starting platform that lit up under the swimmer's feet. That system, he said, was much better than the current system in which swimmers must turn their heads toward the poolside to see the light. "There was some frustration in the morning," coach Seda Ozdemir said. "Some of us should've made the top eight, but the bad starts added two to three seconds. … But we'll get used to the starting method tomorrow and get better." Peggy Liang and Samantha Elam finished ninth and 10th in the preliminaries of the women's 400m freestyle, narrowly missing the finals. "We will be better from now on as the swimmers get relaxed more," Laughna said. |
 (Photo by Sina McCarthy)
 (Photo by Sina McCarthy)
Latest News
Athletes MentionedDonate
|