By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 13. IT'S still early, but there's a surprise sitting on top of the women's 100 freestyle. Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppala was the top qualifier after the preliminaries in the event as she took top honors in the sixth of seven heats with a time of 53.60. Seppala won her heat just ahead of Germany's Britta Steffen, the former world-record holder. Steffen clocked in at 53.67.
The third-fastest time of the prelims also came from the sixth heat, thanks to Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands producing an effort of 53.76. American Natalie Coughlin, already the gold medalist in the 100 backstroke and bronze medalist in the 200 individual medley, was fourth into the semifinals with a mark of 53.82.
Great Britain's Francesca Halsall, one of a number of British females helping the resurgence of that nation, was fifth in 53.93 and world-record holder Libby Trickett was the other woman to break the 54-second barrier. The Australian, the heavy favorite to capture the gold medal, cruised in a time of 53.99. Trickett earlier won gold in the 100 butterfly.
The Chinese duo of Pang Jiaying and Zhu Yingwen tied for the seventh spot in 54.01 and were followed in ninth by Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen (54.04). The field for the semifinals will also include Josefin Lillhage of Sweden (54.07), France's Malia Metella (54.12), Belarus' Aleksandra Gerasimenya (54.52), Aussie Cate Campbell (54.55), American Lacey Nymeyer (54.62) and Canada's Erica Morningstar (54.66).
Germany's Petra Dallman and Canada's Julia Wilkinson tied for the 16th spot in 54.70 and were headed for a swimoff. Wilkinson later decided to pull out of the swimoff to focus on other events.
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
Premium Members - Search More About: Hanna-Maria Seppala
Reaction Time Comments
August 13, 2008 SISU! Submitted by: PhatMatt
August 13, 2008 Anyone know the times in the swimoff? Submitted by: The Dean
August 13, 2008 The untold stories of these games is how the Chinese women have been doping.
You've got their 4x100 Free team dropping a time over 4 seconds faster than they have in recent years (excluding the 1997 WC doping relay). Pang goes 1:55.0 in the 200 Free. I bet she never went sub 1:57 prior to this year. There's the 2 200 Flyers leading qualifying for the final, and you know they're going to go sub 7:50 in the 4x200 relay tonight...(never under 7:55 prior to this). Submitted by: mario2007
August 13, 2008 Can't find the actual results of the swimoff, but Petra Dallman is listed on the heat sheet - so she must have won. Submitted by: Jason Marsteller
August 13, 2008 Wilkinson elected to pull out of the swim-off to save up for other events Submitted by: The Dean
August 13, 2008 Mario:
The US, French, Italian, Swedish, and Austrlian relays all went 3 seconds under their best times... a LOT of swimmers have dropped a lot of time in their events this year. This is an Olympic year. And its in China, so you KNOW they've been training specifically for THIS meet for 7 years.
Don't be such a poor sport. If the Chinese team goes 7:40, you can talk about doping all you want. But as it stands, you have to applaud them for doing an amazing job and swimming a great meet thus far. Submitted by: Sphere
August 13, 2008 If the Chinese are really doping, we should have seen hugh time drop from all (or at least most) of them, but this is not what's happening.
Submitted by: chris
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