Swimmers place out of medals in last meet of Games

by Sarah Segal on September 14, 2009

With six final events to close the swimming bracket of the 2009 Taipei Deaflympics at Hsinchu Swimming Plaza on Sunday evening, the eight participating Americans' jets never cooled. Rebecca Meyers, Samantha Elam, Brian Bennett, William Landgren, Peggy Liang, Jessica Weeden, and Carlisle Robinson all went out with a bang, keeping excellent pace and topping or maintaining most of their best times. Meyers and Elam both launched the last event by pushing themselves in the final of the women's 800m freestyle, putting them ahead of their heat times by 12 seconds and almost a full minute, respectively. They finished seventh and eighth with close times of 9:47.20 and 9:48.79, unable to top the world and Games records of 9:09.73 set by Elizabeth Lutz in 1981, a tough feat even for first-place winner Anna Tovasta, of Ukraine, who finished at 9:15.95. Alhough Bennett trailed his seven competitors from the outset of his 1500m freestyle final, he had a great start, kicked a good leg and ultimately was able to maintain his time, more or less, from yesterday morning's heat. He placed third in his heat Saturday with a time of 17:26.29 and swam a 17:26.82 in Sunday's final, good enough for eighth place. After 100 meters of swimming, Liang also found herself in last place of the women's backstroke event. However, she remained neck-and-neck with most of her competitors for the sprint and was behind first-place winner and world and Games record-breaker Sweden's Anna Polivanchuk (1:07.17) by just more than three seconds with a 1:10.59. Landgren's results were even closer to record times. He finished fifth with a time of 25.41 in the final B men's 50m freestyle, just 1:31 seconds behind Russian Ilya Sarykin Eduardovich's Games record of 24.10 and 1:55 seconds behind Greek Georgios Dontas's world record of 23.86. Weeden put up an impressive fight in the Americans' sixth event of the day, the women's 100m breaststroke event, driving herself from seventh to sixth place after a strong flip turn at 50 meters. She bested her heat time by one second with a finals time of 1:20.81. Liang, Robinson, Elam and Weeden set the tone for the close of their team's participation in the Games in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. After Elam closed the distance between the Americans and the Swedes after her first flip turn in the third minute, Weeden jumped in for the final minute and carried the rest of the team to fourth place. As the U.S. finished with a time of 4:09.66, just six seconds behind the third place team, Belarus, and a total of 10 seconds behind the first-place Ukranians, the Americans leapt for the sky with flags of red and white and blue, inspired by the athletes' patriotism and consistent vigor displayed throughout the Games. After a slow, arduous week, the U.S. Swim Team completes the 2009 Taipei Deaflympics with two bronze medals, one won by the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team and Weeden in the women's 50m breaststroke. Liang said she was satisfied with the results of the Games. "It was a good week of racing."

Swimmers place out of medals in last meet of Games

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