Lezak Takes Sprint Title as World Cup in Stockholm Wraps Up

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, January 18. TIGHT races were the order of the day as the Stockholm stop on the FINA World Cup circuit came to a conclusion on Wednesday. Several races were won by a fingernail, including the men’s 100-meter breaststroke. The bronze medalist at last summer’s World Champs in Montreal, France’s Hugues Duboscq edged the Ukraine’s Oleg Lisogor for victory by the narrowest of margins, 59.05-59.06.

Like the first day of the meet, the American contingent put together a strong showing. One day after winning the 100 breast, Tara Kirk bested the competition in the 50 breast with a time of 30.37. For good measure, Kirk took second place in the 200 breast, as her clocking of 2:22.85 was just behind the winning mark of 2:22.73, produced by Great Britain’s Kirsty Balfour.

In the men’s 50 freestyle, Jason Lezak touched the wall first with a time of 21.61, slightly quicker than the 21.63 of Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand. American Nick Brunelli was third in 21.84. Another U.S. triumph was supplied by Peter Marshall in the 50 backstroke, as his 23.66 topped countryman Randall Bal (24.08). Bal, however, rebounded to take the 200 back in 1:53.51. Other American action saw Rachel Komisarz prevail in the 400 freestyle with her 4:04.23 defeating the 4:04.28 of France’s Alena Popchanka.

One day after securing wins in the 100 free and 100 individual medley, South Africa’s Ryk Neethling registered the quickest time in the 200 free. Neethling went 1:45.00 to the 1:45.14 of China’s Zhang Lin. For Japan, Maiko Fujino won the 400 individual medley (4:33.34), Hanae Ito prevailed in the 100 backstroke (1:00.03) and Yuko Nakanishi won the 200 butterfly (2:07.21). On the men’s side, Hidemasa Sano was swiftest in the 200 I.M. (1:56.97).

Other first-place finishes were collected by the Netherlands’ Marleen Veldhuis in the 100 free (53.28), Russia’s Evgeny Korotyshkin in the 100 fly (51.66), Romania’s Dragos Coman in the 1,500 free (14:38.00), Poland’s Aleksandra Urbanczyk in the 100 I.M. (1:00.98) and Sweden’s Therese Alshammar (25.84).

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