Swimmers finish out of medals

by Martin Dale-Hench on September 9, 2009

American swimmers finished out of the medals during finals Wednesday in front of a full crowd at Hsinchu County Swimming Plaza. Jess Weeden placed sixth in the 200-meter breaststroke, and the U.S. men's 4x100-meter medley race finished eighth. Weeden had a great jump to start her swim, staying neck-to-neck with the rest of the swimmers to gain fourth place at 50 meters. However, two other swimmers gradually overtook her during the next 100 meters, and Weeden ended up three places outside the podium with a time of 2:50.29, two seconds behind the bronze winner. Aksana Petrushenka, of Belarus, demolished the field en route to her world-record time of 2:39.61, five seconds better than her nearest competitor. The men's relay team finished eighth in the morning preliminaries and repeated their ranking in the evening, improving their time by a second. Jake Hammack swam backstroke; Daniel DiDonna, breaststroke; Duggan Baker, butterfly; and Brian Bennett, freestyle. William Landgren swam in eighth lane in the final B of men's 100-meter freestyle, finishing third with 55.58, a personal best. After 50 meters, he clocked 26 seconds and led the field, but fell behind to third. Since he raced in this final and in two other races, including the medley preliminaries, he did not participate in the relay finals. There will be no races Thursday, a rest day. The Games resume Friday with women's and men's 200-meter freestyle and conclude with the women's 4x100-meter medleys, a race in which the American women have a good shot for a medal. Some swimmers said they would use the day off to return to Taipei, either to watch other teams or to go sightseeing. One of them already has an itinerary. "I'm going to go see the men's soccer game tomorrow morning," swimmer Carlisle Robinson said.

Swimmers finish out of medals

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