By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 11. THE British are coming. At least that's what the results of the women's 400 freestyle indicate as Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson handed the Brits a gold-bronze finish that will no doubt delight the Commonwealth. Making it more of a celebration was the come-from-behind fashion of Adlington's triumph.
Making a stronger impression with each of her swims over the past several months, Adlington made her biggest statement in an Olympic final, tracking down Katie Hoff over the last lap to win the 400 free in 4:03.22. Adlington went into the final 50 meters with a 1.46-second deficit to Hoff. But she continued to churn away and her final split of 29.18 landed her the gold medal.
For Hoff, it was her second medal of the Games, complementing the bronze she won in the 400 individual medley during the first morning of finals. Hoff took the lead at the 200-meter mark and stayed in command until just before the wall, when Adlington went ahead. Hoff was timed in 4:03.29, her final-lap split a 30.71.
Jackson added to the British success when she held off France's Coralie Balmy for the bronze medal. Jackson went 4:03.52 to the 4:03.60 of Balmy. Following in fifth was Italian Federica Pellegrini, the world-record holder and top seed going into the race. Pellegrini managed to go 4:04.56, slightly faster than the 4:04.66 of Romania's Camelia Potec. Seventh went to Aussie Bronte Barratt (4:05.05) and France's Laure Manaudou, the defending champ, was eighth in 4:11.26.
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
Premium Members - Search More About: Rebecca Adlington
Reaction Time Comments
August 10, 2008 What happened to the Italian?????? And Manadou?!?!?!? 4:11?This Olympic Games is giving the fans everything and much much more! Submitted by: paddles
August 10, 2008 Now I'm even more convinced that Evans' 800 world record has a chance to make it through these Games.... The chances are slim, but I'm kind of hoping it does......
With the morning finals, I don't know if anybody will be able to pull an 8:16..... Not after seeing the Italian go so slow... The British girl might take it! Even Hoff....
Submitted by: Hodori88
August 10, 2008 Ahhh!!!! Hoff swam such a great race....just ran out steam a little bit at the end!! I think Pelegrini with her 158.3 this morning at the 200 got hurt a little bit with going out that fast and maybe didn't want it to be like that again and paced herself out of it. But how often have we seen this in Olympic middle distance event finals where you have 5-7 girls all so cautious of "not losing" the race they swim themselves out of it (remember Potec winning in lane 1 of the 200 Free in Athens while the rest of the field all just sat there and watched each other?).
Kudos to Katie for grabbing that race by the horns and saying "If you don't want it...I'll take it".
And as I mentioned in the prelim post, called that with Manaudou getting a solid 8th. She was a deer in the headlights of a new world she doesn't understand and more importantly doesn't want to train for. She tried to assert herself early, but it was painfully obvious she did not do the training to excel in that race and paid for it. Time to have the 'retirement talk' for her, or go and apologize to Lucas and beg him to take her back to win in London.
So heartbreaking for Hoff though.....she swam such an inspiring race. Submitted by: rcoach
August 10, 2008 Agreed, Hoff swam an amazing race. Also agree in thinking that the Evans' 800 record with last. Most of the ladies tonight did not swim very fast for them. Submitted by: gswimmer
August 10, 2008 I am not sure. I think there may be a few girls out there that may be right in the neighborhood of 8:16, including Hoff. I think if she can go out a little easier, her conditioning will get her home. But it is a fairly new event for her, so strategy may play the most difficult part for her to make a run at it. I think you might see one or two come out of the woodwork to make it a race. What I really liked about tonight's 400 was how good Katie's stroke looks. Her Freestyle might be her most improved stroke, it really looks great these days.
Wonder how fast Evans would have gone with that little thing of a body in a spiffy LZR suit? Can you say 8:09 or so? (Hey we can adjust for inflation from 1988 dollars, why not times)? That should be a really interesting race to watch though.
This 400 final was actually fairly ho-hum except for Hoff and the British girl who won.
Wonder what the 200 will be like tomorrow? Submitted by: rcoach
August 10, 2008 We get the Canadian channel here in WA...CBC had underwater video of Hoff's finish. She touched with a flat palm - not her fingertips. Her fingers were pointing straight up at the touch. It was painful to watch. School of hard knocks. Submitted by: Get the Info
August 11, 2008 Gutsy gamble swim by Hoff; she ran out of steam but she's got 3 more chances for individual gold; (Get the Info, I'd say her 200 free chances just got a bit better) She's tough. Great swims by Adlington, Jackson, Balmy. The soap opera queens flamed out; I felt just a little sorry for Manadou when they showed her just before the race, she looked terrified and I knew she was gonna lose just from that alone.
Get the Info: I didn't know about the flat vs. fingertips finish til this meet. Is that why Emily Silver keeps breaking her fingers? She must be finishing well then. Submitted by: liquidassets
August 11, 2008 I'm glad someone else is saying it too - Hoff blew the finish. I would have been unhappy with one of my high school swimmers for that finish, and it may have cost her the gold. She dove her arm too deep and then flattened the hand as she raised it from that depth... I don't recall any more if that was one of the swims that didn't roll to extend her reach -- but I saw a few of those too. Goes to show some people are fast in spite of their technique. (Though this isn't the case for the rest of her swim, of course!) No way to know for sure if she would have won, but 2 meters out I thought she was going to pull it off.... Hopefully she'll turn it around before things are done!
liquid - watch the tape, or just work it out on your living room wall -- stand as far away from the wall as you can be, with you arm and hand perfectly perpendicular to the wall, with just your finger tip touching. Now flatten your hand by bending at the wrist, and you lose contact with the wall. And yes, not bending the hand slightly puts you at an increased risk of "jamming" your finger, but when in doubt and especially if the gold medal is on the line -- risk the jam! I guess, in her defense, she has a lot more races to swim this week.... Submitted by: oldcoach
August 11, 2008 The thing about IMers like Cseh and Perira is that they are equally good at all four strokes. Perira swam the 100/200 Back and 200 Breast at the Pan Ams, while having a really good fly in the IMs. Cseh usually has a solid breast in IMs, while he has often swum both backstrokes in major competition (bronze in 100 at '05 Worlds), but it seems his fly has gotten much better lately (including gold at Euro Short Course Champs). Submitted by: SwimDER94
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