Peirsol Sets Up For Finals With Olympic Record

By Sarah Tolar

ATHENS, August 18. THE USA's Aaron Peirsol, never one to disappoint, was in top form for the 200 backstroke semifinals tonight as he led the second semifinal heat from start to finish. Peirsol flipped at the 100 with a split of 55.95, three-one hundreths of a second ahead of his own world record pace, and over a second ahead of second place challenger, Austrian Markus Rogan.

Peirsol finished just shy of his world record from four weeks prior at the US Trials, but fast enough to set a new Olympic record with a time of 1:55.14. Rogan held on for second with a 1:57.50. Gregor Tait of Great Britain was over a second back with a 1:58.75.

Earlier, in the first heat of semis, Tait’s teammate, James Goddard, swam more or less unchallenged. He led at the 100 with a split of 56.58 over Romania’s Razvan Florea’s 57.43, and never looked back. Goddard finished with a 1:57.25, Florea with a 1:58.20 and in third was Frenchman Simon Dufour with a 1:58.96.

The 100 backstroke bronze medalist, Tomomi Moita of Japan, who was the 16th and last qualifier for the semis, just made the cut for the top eight with a time of 1:59.52, joining Peirsol, Rogan, Goddard, Florea, Tait, Dufour and Slovenian Blaz Medvesek to battle in the final heat.

Men 200m Backstroke Semifinals

Record Splits Name NOC Location Date
WR 1:54.74 27.18 55.98 1:25.29 PEIRSOL Aaron USA Long Beach (USA) 12 JUL 2004
OR 1:56.76 27.37 56.59 1:26.05 KRAYZELBURG Lenny USA Sydney (AUS) 21 SEP 2000

Event No: 21

Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m 100m 150m Time Time
Behind
1 2 4 PEIRSOL Aaron USA 0.70 27.27 55.95
28.68 1:25.43
29.48 1:55.14
29.71 OR
2 1 4 GODDARD James GBR 0.66 27.24 56.58
29.34 1:27.10
30.52 1:57.25
30.15 2.11
3 2 5 ROGAN Markus AUT 0.74 27.64 57.03
29.39 1:27.20
30.17 1:57.50
30.30 2.36
4 1 5 FLOREA Razvan ROM 0.62 27.58 57.43
29.85 1:28.07
30.64 1:58.20
30.13 3.06
5 2 3 TAIT Gregor GBR 0.68 27.83 57.48
29.65 1:28.11
30.63 1:58.75
30.64 3.61
6 1 3 DUFOUR Simon FRA 0.69 28.15 57.77
29.62 1:28.27
30.50 1:58.96
30.69 3.82
7 2 8 MEDVESEK Blaz SLO 0.71 28.22 58.12
29.90 1:29.00
30.88 1:59.37
30.37 4.23
8 1 8 MORITA Tomomi JPN 0.55 28.10 57.89
29.79 1:29.11
31.22 1:59.52
30.41 4.38

9 1 7 KOZULJ Gordan CRO 0.82 27.87 57.87
30.00 1:28.79
30.92 1:59.61
30.82 4.47
10 2 6 HUNT Bryce USA 0.69 28.93 58.99
30.06 1:29.43
30.44 1:59.74
30.31 4.60
11 1 1 VYATCHANIN Arkady RUS 0.87 28.35 57.95
29.60 1:28.38
30.43 1:59.80
31.42 4.66
12 2 1 BEAVERS Keith CAN 0.73 28.80 59.14
30.34 1:29.38
30.24 1:59.98
30.60 4.84
13 1 6 SANCHEZ Jorge ESP 0.69 27.95 58.06
30.11 1:28.89
30.83 2:00.12
31.23 4.98
14 1 2 O BRIEN Nathaniel CAN 0.75 28.86 59.33
30.47 1:30.20
30.87 2:00.13
29.93 4.99
15 2 7 ROMERO Rogerio BRA 0.63 28.90 59.46
30.56 1:30.58
31.12 2:00.48
29.90 5.34
16 2 2 MERISI Emanuele ITA 0.66 28.91 59.43
30.52 1:30.23
30.80 2:00.83
30.60 5.69

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