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By Kendra Boren
from WillametteLive, Section News
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008 at 03:09:56 PM PDT
Talk about a photo finish ending to a race! No, I'm not talking about horse racing or a dash on the track, but a swimming relay that came down to .08 of a second difference between gold and silver in what many experts are calling the best relay race in history.Viewers in the `water cube' and at home alike were treated to a rousing finish in the men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay that left U.S. anchor Jason Lezak with the fastest relay split time in history, clocking in at 46.06 seconds. Their rivals and the favorites going into the contest, the French team led by Alain Bernard, not only had the numbers to back up their leading status but had been talking smack to the press about "smashing" the American team the day before.
Led off by Michael Phelps, the U.S. relay team members Garret Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones swam to a world record shattering time of 3:08.24 almost exactly four seconds faster than the former WR benchmark. In fact, even the fifth place finishers were ahead of world-record pace.
While the team gold insures that Phelps' quest for 8 gold medals is kept alive, the celebration was clearly more about the incredible team effort and proving to themselves and their opponents that even as underdogs they could touch the wall first.
Also in the pool, despite a lead going to the last leg of the 400 freestyle swim, Katie Hoff couldn't hold off British swimmer Rebecca Adlington. Hoff won the silver medal .07 of a second behind the leader.
Brendan Hansen, the silver medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke from Athens, couldn't swim up to the same measure against his rival Kosuke Kitajima or up to meal standards last night. Hansen finished fourth in his only individual event in Beijing.
Over in the National Indoor Stadium, gymnastics began for the women. A last second injury left USA gymnastics scrambling to rearrange the start order of the gymnasts on each apparatus. Although shaken by the mishap, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin led the team to a second place qualification. Team captain Alicia Sacramone will advance to the vault finals. Johnson and Liukin qualified for the All Around finals in first and second position and both made it into the floor and beam event finals with their high scoring routines. Liukin will also face off with the world's greatest bar workers in event finals. The team competition, however, is the primary focus. Wednesday morning in Bejing, the U.S. and China will fight for every tenth in their quests to become Olympic Champions.
The only U.S. medal won not by a fencer or swimmer came from shooter Corey Cogdell who won the bronze medal in the women's trap event. Although I wish I could explain exactly what that means, all I am sure of is that her performance brought the U.S. medal count total to 12.
Today watch for the men's gymnastics team final, women's platform synchro diving, and four more swim finals, including the men's and women's 100 meter backstroke.
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Post A Comment| Keeping up with the Olympic Games: Relay and Women's gymnastics | 0 comments
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