By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 15. FOR good reason, much of this week's action in the Water Cube has revolved around Michael Phelps and his pursuit of eight gold medals. But, there's some other history being chased, courtesy of Grant Hackett. The Australian distance ace is trying to become the first male swimmer to win an individual Olympic event three consecutive times.
Leading the last of the preliminary heats from start to finish, Hackett registered an Olympic-record time of 14:38.92 to better the 14:43.40 he used to win the gold medal in Athens four years ago. Hackett will now have a day to recuperate before attempting to add another Olympic victory to his lengthy list of accomplishments.
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Canadian Ryan Cochrane, a fast-improving force on the international distance scene, established a national record while winning his heat. Cochrane clocked in at 14:40.84 to hold the Olympic record until Hackett came along. He was nearly matched in his heat by Russian Yury Prilukov, who touched the wall in 14:41.13, good for a European record.
China's Zhang Lin, the silver medalist in the 400 freestyle, grabbed the fourth seed for the championship final after being timed in 14:45.84, an Asian record. Also qualifying for the title race were Great Britain's David Davies (14:46.11), Tunisia's Ous Mellouli (14:47.76), China's Sun Yang (14:48.39) and American Larsen Jensen (14:49.53). The other American in the field, Peter Vanderkaay, was 11th in 14:52.11 and missed the final.
Twelve men broke the 15-minute barrier.
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
Premium Members - Search More About: Grant Hackett
Reaction Time Comments
August 15, 2008 So much for Park going 14:41 or whatever someone said he would go. The week is catching up with some of these guys. It's been interesting to see how fast prelims have been in most of these races, pretty much across the board. Submitted by: Dizzy1203
August 15, 2008 I hope Grant has something left in the tank. No disrespect to the other guys, but I am REALLY pulling for him. He was in Thorpie's shadow for so long, I would love to see him do something no one else ever did (and that includes the former great, Vladimir Salnikov, Phelps, Spitz, et al). Submitted by: paddles
August 15, 2008 They should have the heats 3 or 4 days before the finals now to give the swimmers time to recover most of them would have went all out in the heats
Submitted by: kan24
August 15, 2008 14:49 to make finals? Are these people insane??? Submitted by: Chile
August 15, 2008 GRANT rocks!! Submitted by: nosniveling
August 15, 2008 Unless Jensen can put it together alot better in the final; there will be a shut out for mens'/women's distance. Could this be a pattern; did they all share a post-trials training schedule at the training camp?? Submitted by: liquidassets
August 15, 2008 Jensen did not use alot of energy in the prelims and he tends to like the outside lanes... I think he will be fine. Jensen also won a bronze in the 400m free so the Americans at minimum have one (1) distance event medal.
Submitted by: bob
August 15, 2008 I am properly called out for predicting Park would go 14:41...some guys have hit the wall holding a taper for a week now. I too think Jensen will be fine. He has tended through the years to be very careful to conserve energy in the prelims of the 1500 at these big meets where you need to swim it twice. This time he came close to being too careful to conserve. He'll be in the mix for the gold for sure. My other guy is still Mellouli. He has the talent to get it done. Submitted by: jim
August 15, 2008 I think alot of these men threw it down in prelims. Jensen has a good amount left in the tank. Can someone say OUTSIDE SMOKE!? Submitted by: WUswimmer
August 15, 2008 Oh, by distance I meant the 800/1500; I assumed the training for the 400 was different. I hope you are all right about Jensen; but he knew alot of guys were already in the 40's when he swam and could probably see the two ahead of him. Has he done this before at Olympics or Worlds, etc?? Submitted by: liquidassets
August 15, 2008 That's the point. Larsen knew there were guys in the 40s when he swam and also saw the two guys ahead of him. That's experience and maturity to know third in the heat gets you in the final and that is literally all you care about in this event. He will be very very fast in the final. Submitted by: jim
August 16, 2008 That was a great shot of him gritting his teeth, trying to hold on w/o breathing. Excellent swim by Cielo. Good to see he's improving in the 100 as well. Submitted by: dah_sab
Reaction Time responses do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Swimming World Magazine or SwimmingWorldMagazine.com.
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