By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 15. IT was billed as a clash of the titans and it certainly turned out that way. Battling over four laps, Ryan Lochte and Aaron Peirsol went head-to-head in their latest duel in the 200 backstroke, with Lochte emerging as latest round winner and with a world-record time and gold medal as his rewards.
Tied with Peirsol at the 150-meter mark, where both men sat behind Russian Arkady Vyatchanin, Lochte split 28.88 for his final lap to finish in 1:53.94, faster than the world record he shared with Peirsol at 1:54.32. Last month at the United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Lochte finished second to Peirsol. Really, it's one the best event-rivalries in the sport.
Advertisement
With the final of the 200 individual medley later in the night, Lochte was contesting one of the toughest doubles in Olympic swimming history, a mere 29 minutes separating his events. Peirsol, meanwhile, earned the silver medal in 1:54.33, grabbing his second medal of the Games. He earlier won the 100 back in world-record time.
"That's the theme of the meet," Peirsol said. "You've got to break a world record to win. I gave it my all. I had nothing left. Ryan handed me a great race. I have no regrets. It really doesn't take anything away from my career. A race is a race. You can get beat. No one owns anything."
Vyatchanin, who shared the bronze medal in the 100 back, held on for the bronze again as he went a European record of 1:54.93 to hold off Austria's Markus Rogan, the silver medalist in Athens. Rogan was timed in 1:55.49. Japan's Ryosuke Irie was next in 1:55.72 and Aussie Hayden Stoeckel was sixth in 1:56.39. The last two positions went to Romanian Razvan Florea (1:56.52) and Great Britain's Gregor Tait (1:57.00).
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
Premium Members - Search More About: Ryan Lochte
Reaction Time Comments
August 14, 2008 Let's hope this fires up Aaron to lead off the 400 MR tomorrow in another 52.5. The race was won on Lochte's last turn. Submitted by: crafto
August 14, 2008 Well said, Peirsol! Submitted by: mario2007
August 15, 2008 Great race!!! Fantastic for all medalists including Vyathanin who had that extra race in there. Submitted by: liquidassets
Reaction Time responses do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Swimming World Magazine or SwimmingWorldMagazine.com.
Reaction Time is provided as a service to our readers.
Forgot Screen Name or Password?
Click here and we will email it to you.
|
Free Download:
|
Adobe Reader
Real
Player
Windows
Media Player
Silverlight
Media Player
Power
Point Viewer
Word
Viewer
Zip Extractor
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
