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Friday, September 22, 2000
Swimming News Online
GOLDEN DOUBLE FOR US MATES
DE BRUIJN SLASHES 50M RECORD
BRITAIN WILL HAVE TO LEARN FAST SAYS PALMER

Golden double for US mates

Phoenix training partners Gary Hall Jr and Anthony Ervin rose from the shadow of Pieter van den Hoogenband and Alexander Popov today to share the gold medal in the 50m freestyle. Britain’s Mark Foster finished seventh.

The Americans’ winning time was 21.98sec to the flying Dutchman’s 22.03, while Popov, the Russian whose world record stands at 21.64sec, clocked 22.24 for sixth place, his worst result in an international career spanning back to 1990. With that, Popov’s chance of becoming the first man to win the same title at three Games vanished. He had won both the 50 and 100m title in 1992 and 1996 but finished second to Van den Hoogenband in the 100m in Sydney earlier this week.

In defeat, the Dutchman will remain one of several swimmers in Sydney to have won two gold medals in individual events, his successes coming in the 100 and 200m freestyle.

There had been only two other occasions on which two swimmers had clocked the same time, one resulting in swimmers sharing the gold medal, the other controversially not, and both involving Americans.

In 1972, Gunnar Larsson, of Sweden, and Tim McKee, of the United States, clocked 4min 31.98sec in the 400m medley final at the Games in Munich.

However, officials decided to look at then third decimal point and the Swede was awarded the gold medal, McKee the silver. The ensuing controversy caused a change in the rules and races have gone only to the second decimal point since.

At the same Games, Gary Hall Jr’s father, Gary, won the silver medal in the 200m butterfly behind Mark Spitz, who went on to win a record seven gold medals.

The first Olympic swimming gold medal to be shared went to Americans Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer, in 55.92sec, in the 100m freestyle in 1984.

Hall Jr, 26 on Tuesday, finished second to Popov in both the 50 and 100m four years ago, while success for Ervin at 19 leaves room for him to emulate Popov’s amazing career. The Russian still holds the Olympic record at 21.91, his time from Barcelona in 1992.

One place behind Popov was Britain’s Mark Foster, on 22.41. Foster, the world short-course champion, admitted the time was worse than he has done in training lately. At 35m, the British and Commonwealth champion was in the race, even perhaps at the helm of it by a fingernail. But there it ended as the big guns going for gold rolled beyond him into a space a half-second ahead.

Foster said he had "felt good up to the 35 [metres]", and could not pinpoint why he had swum slower than in training races in recent weeks. "I just didn’t have it tonight," he said.

Craig Lord
Swimming Correspondent
The Times

De Bruijn slashes 50m record

Inge de Bruijn’s reaction time said it all: 0.41sec off the blocks as measured by the electrode attached to the platform from which she pounced Puma-like on her way to a stunning world record of 24.13sec in the second semi-final of the 50m freestyle.

In setting the thirteenth world record in the pool in Sydney - more than three times the number established in Atlanta four years ago - the flying Dutchwoman reduced the gap that has existed between men and women over the distance for the past 15 years by half a second.

The average reaction time in the semi-finals was 0.78sec. De Bruijn left the blocks as though her feet had been placed over hot coals. Emerging from her dive ahead of reigning Olympic champion Amy Van Dyken, of the United States, the most talked-about woman in the pool in Sydney evoked memories of China’s Le Jingyi, the former world record-holder, in 1994.

Then, Le had windmilled her way to a global standard of 24.51sec, in a victory of power over technique to take the world title. So it was with de Bruijn, whose straight-arm action is not the prettiest sight in the pool, though under water she is sharply efficient.

De Bruijn said she was looking forward to the final. Her rivals were not. Nearest to her today was Therese Alshammar, of Sweden, on 24.80sec. The biggest winning margin in any world-level championship over 50m was secured by Le in 1994, when she finished 0.59sec ahead of Natalia Mesheryakova, the Russian who was later suspended for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.

Beyond that discredited race, an average of less than 0.15sec has split the top two medals over 50m on a global stage in the past 14 years, since the event was introduced at the world championships in Madrid.

Victory in the final would bring De Bruijn her third gold medal of the Games and make her the most successful swimmer, her triumphs all in individual events.

Also in the final is Britain's Alison Sheppard, the Glaswegian who trains in Canada, who is making her Olympic debut at the age of 27. Her time of 25.32sec puts her in at sixth.

Craig Lord
Swimming Correspondent
The Times

Britain will have to learn fast, says Palmer

Paul Palmer of Britian swam his last Olympic race today, finishing 17th in the fastest series of 1,500m freestyle heats in history and then promptly declared: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

Palmer, whose fifth place in the 200m freestyle final was Britain’s best finish in the pool, summed up his nation’s relative ignorance of the science of producing swimming champions: “The fact is that Britain doesn’t have a clue what’s going on out there.” Britain had to find “whatever it is that the rest of the world are doing to make them so fast”.

A measure of just how far world swimming has progressed since Atlanta is reflected in the number of records established at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre; 12 new global standards and 33 Olympic records, 15 of which were set in qualifying heats and semi-finals.

Britain, Palmer said, had simply not anticipated that level of advance. Some of it was dubious, he suggested, but added this qualification: “We are not getting beaten by thousands of drug cheats. We are getting beaten by people who are taking products that are helping them to win. We have to get out there, find what it is, how it’s used, what the implications are and start to play at that level.

“We’ve got to move with the times,” said Palmer who advocated the move for the next generation of British swimmers. As a man who rarely takes a vitamin pill, he declared himself “happy that I’m near the end of my swimming career”.

Britain, he said, had not done too badly by its own standards. “I’m disappointed and disheartened by the fact that we didn’t win any medals. As a whole we have worked so hard. But the truth is, it’s not just about hard work. The fact is that Britain doesn’t have a clue what’s going on out there.”

He believes that Bill Sweetenham, the Australian coach heading Britain’s way in the autumn to replace Deryk Snelling as national performance director, will bring some secrets with him. “He comes from one of the most successful nations and played a key role in that success. Snelling has opened our eyes to what we have to do, what we have to achieve, what we can achieve but you can’t expect to turn a new company into a multimillion-pound business in three years. It takes time.”

Time has just about run out for Britain at these Games, Alison Sheppard, of Glasgow, offering a last slim hope of a medal in the 50m freestyle today. If that hope fades, then Britain will return home empty handed from the Games for the first time since 1936.

The speed of change in world swimming was also summed up by Mark Foster, of Britain, who today finished seventh in the final of the 50m freestyle, half a second off the pace.

“I didn’t know what to wear,” said the world short-course record holder, referring to his Fastskin shark suit. “I noticed all the others were wearing just legs. I’m still not sure what’s for the best,” said Foster, who has never produced his winter form in the summer long-course season.

This is the Olympic Games, and Foster’s pondering spoke volumes about the steep learning curve that British swimming must still go through after a week of wishing for better things in Sydney.

Craig Lord
Swimming Correspondent
The Times