By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 15. HE had just finished his gold-medal parade around the pool deck and was ready to race again. That's the way the week has gone for Michael Phelps. He's always been on the run, ready to tackle that next challenge. This time around, it was the semifinal round of the 100 butterfly.
Swimming in the first semifinal, Phelps was easy through the first 50 meters, picked up the tempo on the second lap a bit and finished in a time of 50.97 to nail down the second seed for the championship final. In that final, Phelps will be chasing the seventh gold medal of these Games to match the record set by Mark Spitz at the 1972 Games in Munich.
Winning the second semifinal, Serbia's Milorad Cavic earned the top seed by managing a time of 50.92, not far off his Olympic record of 50.76 from the preliminaries. Cavic has been known to swim some of his better races in earlier rounds, so it will be interesting to see if he can stay with Phelps when the pressure is on.
American Ian Crocker, the world-record holder, and Australian Andrew Lauterstein tied for the third-fastest time of the morning, as they both touched in 51.27. Crocker's world record sits at 50.40 and he was the silver medalist to Phelps in 2004. The rest of the field for the final will feature Kenya's Jason Dunford (51.33), Ukrainian Adriy Serdinov (51.41), the bronze medalist in Athens, Japan's Takuro Fujii (51.59) and Ryan Pini of Papua New Guinea (51.62).
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
Premium Members - Search More About: Milorad Cavic
Reaction Time Comments
August 14, 2008 50.2 for Phelps tomorrow. 23.8 and 26.4 splits. Cavic the silver in 50.7. Crocker the bronze in 50.9 Submitted by: crafto
August 14, 2008 Well fred bousquet is out of this one now after a terrible last 50. Phelps has this in the bag in my opinion. After having only 25 minutes between events and taking 2nd by only .05 to Cavic i think he will get his 7th gold, and i believe in WR time, i dont think he will go under 50 but i think he will go about a 50.14 to 50.26 Submitted by: WUswimmer
August 14, 2008 WU, I hope you are right....with one difference. Let's hope for a sub-50! :o) Submitted by: paddles
August 14, 2008 I'm not so sure that Cavic can go that much faster, so definitely don't count out Crocker for that silver medal! He was quite a bit faster in semis than he was in Melbourne before he claimed silver. No doubt right now about who the three medalists are, though. Submitted by: SwimDER94
August 14, 2008 No analysis..no comments on the race, no predictions.
All I have to say is "HOW FLIPPIN COOL IS THIS THAT WE MIGHT GET TO SEE THIS HAPPEN IN OUR LIFETIME!!!!"
2 races to go.....GO MICHAEL GO!!!
Submitted by: rcoach
August 14, 2008 Just saw Phelps interviewed after the 100 fly semi. He said he felt better than he thought he would so quick after the I.M. He also said he just wanted to win his heat. It is starting to look better all of the time! Submitted by: crafto
August 14, 2008 That would be great to go sub 50 but i dont think phelps has the speed the first 50 to do that yet, even though its pretty obvious his front half speed has increased tremendously within the past 2 yrs. Submitted by: WUswimmer
August 14, 2008 WU, we always have hope. ;o) GO PHELPS!!!!!!! Submitted by: paddles
August 14, 2008 crafto, regarding your post on the prelims board, I really don't think it's fair of you to say that Ian's head isn't in the sport anymore. Sure, he has a love-hate relationship with it, but he's always had that. The fact is, Ian does a better job than anybody else at his level of balancing his life and keeping swimming and his personal life separate. To basically claim that he doesn't care simply because he doesn't eat, sleep, and breathe swimming 24/7 or that his "head isn't in the sport anymore" because he's had a few off swims totally discounts the sacrifices he makes for the sport. The finals of the 100 fly will very likely be the final individual race of his career, and I can guarantee you that his heart is still in it, whether he goes 49.9 or 52.0. Submitted by: Dizzy1203
August 15, 2008 Well I guess you could say that compared to Phelps none of them have their head in swimming, but seriously they all have slightly different relationships with their swimming and how it fits in their life, and it's interesting to see how it plays out. With Crocker I enjoy reading his writings and also watching him swim so that's cool. Submitted by: liquidassets
August 15, 2008 go cate campbell go! Submitted by: aussie
August 15, 2008 Cate campbell is swimming the men's 100 fly? Whoa, what a stud! ;o) Submitted by: paddles
August 15, 2008 Lauterstein. Submitted by: tjswimer
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.
|
Free Download:
|
