U.S. Olympic Trials: Brendan Hansen Sizzles With Meet Record in 100 Breast Semis

By John Lohn

OMAHA, Nebraska, June 29. THE hunter looks like he's going to shoot down himself. An avid outdoorsman, Brendan Hansen made a run at his world record in the 100 breaststroke during the second semifinal Sunday. Ultimately, he came up just short. No biggie. The final is tomorrow and a 58-point effort appears to be on the horizon.

The world-record holder in 59.13, Hansen clocked the second-fastest time in history, a 59.24 performance wowing the crowd at the Qwest Center. Hansen went out in 27.75 and blazed through the last lap en route to his 14th sub-minute outing of his career. Hansen is the only American to break a minute and owns the four-fastest times in history and five of the quickest six.

"I made a little, tiny mistake tonight," Hansen said. "I came off the wall, as I was doing my pullout, and I could hear the announcer, Sam, say that I was under world-record pace. I kind of got too excited, and the first couple of strokes I really didn't get back into my rhythm. A small mistake like that tomorrow night, I obviously won't do. I wasn't expecting to be out that fast, but this this place and this crowd the way it is, the only way I was going to get noticed tonight was if I broke a world record."

The second spot for the final went to Athens Olympian Mark Gangloff, who clocked 1:00.17, a little slower than his morning effort of 1:00.10. Yep, Hansen has created nearly a second gap over his fellow American competitors, a ridiculous margin for a 100-meter race. Taking the third spot for the title heat was Eric Shanteau in 1:00.63.

Scott Spann, from Longhorn Aquatics like Hansen, was fourth in 1:00.94 and was followed in the next two positions by Chris Ash (1:01.16) and Scott Usher (1:01.18). Closing out the field for the final were Kevin Swander (1:01.27) and John Criste (1:01.38).

Full Results

Video Footage Removed Due to NBC Restrictions
Go to Swimming World's 2008 Olympics Landing Page for the most comprehensive coverage of the meet on the Internet.

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