World Championships: With Sickness Ailing Brendan Hansen, Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima Leads Prelims of 200 Breaststroke

By John Lohn

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 28. THE story of the preliminaries of the 200 breaststroke wasn't so much about what unfolded in the water as it was about the empty lane in the final heat. Suffering from a virus that crept up after his silver-medal finish in the 50 breaststroke, American Brendan Hansen pulled out of his premier event, opening the door for the title to go elsewhere.

The defending champion and world-record holder, Hansen was considered the favorite to repeat his title from Montreal two years ago and was looking to make a run at his global mark of 2:08.50. Instead, Hansen was being attended to by Team USA physican Ken Haller and was hoping to recover in time to participate in the 400 medley relay at the end of the competition.

In Hansen's absence, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima was the No. 1 qualifier heading into the semifinals. The former world-record holder clocked a preliminary effort of 2:11.07. Kitajima took his morning race out hard, turning at the midway point only .03 off Hansen's world record pace. He then settled into a groove for the final two laps.

The second and third positions for the semifinals went to Italy's Loris Facci (2:12.07) and Paolo Bossini (2:12.20). Canadian Michael Brown, the silver medalist two years ago, was fourth in 2:12.39 and Dani Gyruta, the Hungarian teenager who won silver in Athens, took the fifth slot in 2:12.61. Also in the top eight were Aussie Jim Piper (2:12.94), American Eric Shanteau (2:13.00) and Russia's Grigory Falko and the Ukraine's Igor Borysik, both at 2:13.10.

Click Here to view event results PDF file.

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