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Friday, September 22
Swede flies in to spoil the party
From Craig Lord in Sydney
Australia was dealt another serious blow on the penultimate day of swimming in Sydney as Lars Frolander stopped world record holder Michael Klim and team-mate Geoff Huegill today to become the first Swede to win the 100 metres butterfly title since Par Ardvidsson in 1980.
Frolander’s winning time of 52.00sec established a European record that is slower than Klim’s best of 51.81 and the 51.96 in which Huegill set an Olympic record in the semi-finals. Such was the height of expectation placed on the Australians’ shoulders and such was the rivalry between the two members of the Telstra Dolphins, that both were driven to race inside world record pace at the halfway mark.
Frolander, 26, bided his time and was almost a body-length behind Klim emerging from his turn. Slowly but surely, he ran the world record holder down to stop the clock 0.18sec ahead of Klim, with Huegill a further 0.04sec behind.
In the first final this morning, Diana Mocanu, of Romania, became the latest to complete the double, by adding the 200m backstroke title to the 100m crown she won earlier in the week. Her time, 2min 08.16sec, was the third-fastest ever behind the great Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi, winner of the title in 1988, 1992 and 1996, and two Chinese swimmers.
Romanian-born Roxana Maracineanu, whose parents migrated to France to escape poverty and persecution, brought France its first medal at the pool in 2:10.25. Miki Nakao, of Japan, was third in 2:11.05.
The Aquapacer developed by British helicopter pilot Patrick Miley worked its magic almost to the second tonight when Brooke Bennett, of the US, became only the second woman ever to retain the Olympic 800m freestyle title.
Her winning time, 8:19.67, was within a second of that which her Irish-born coach Peter Banks had programmed for her in the pacemaker that sits ticking metronomically on her temple in training.
The small battery-powered device, also used by Australian Ian Thorpe, is not allowed in competition but the imprint it leaves in the mind of the swimmer, like a mental blueprint of race speed, is starting produce some impressive results.
At the halfway mark, Bennett, 20, was 0.09sec inside the world record pace of Janet Evans, the American who won the title in 1988 and 1992. Her split of 4:07.83 was a fingernail behind the time in which Ireland’s since-shamed Michelle Smith de Bruin, won the 400m title in Atlanta four years ago.
Just 100m later, Bennett had dropped a fraction behind Evans’s pace and faded gradually away from it throughout the rest of the race. Evans still has her record, 8:16.22, set in 1989, when she became world champion.
Before today's race, nine of the top ten fastest times ever were set in the 1970s and 1980s. Yana Klochkova, of Ukraine, and winner of both medley titles in Sydney, changed all that alongside Bennett, her 8:22.66 the fifth-fastest on record. Kaitlin Sandeno, of the United States, was third in 8:24.29, the ninth-fastest on record.
