World Championships: Defending Champion Leads 50 Butterfly Qualifying; Danni Miatke Sits on Top

By John Lohn

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 29. DEFENDING champion Danni Miatke of Australia started strongly in the quest to retain her crown. Racing in the last of 13 preliminary heats, Miatke covered the one-lap event in 26.34. That effort was quick enough to lead the qualifying in the semifinal round. Miatke was followed by American Rachel Komisarz, who touched in 26.58.

While Miatke will give the hometown crowd something to cheer up in the semifinals, the Australian squad was dealt a blow when Libby Lenton failed to advance out of the morning heats. Lenton turned in a performance of 27.36, good for 18th place. Lenton has already won the 100 butterfly and will chase gold in the 100 freestyle tonight.

The Netherlands' Inge Dekker, always a factor in the sprint butterfly, checked in as the third-fastest qualifier with a mark of 26.60 and China's Zhou Yafei was fourth in 26.67. World-record holder Anna-Karin Kammerling (Sweden) shared fifth with Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen in 26.81. Seventh and eighth went to Austria's Fabienne Nadarajah (26.99) and the Netherlands' Chantal Groot (27.13). American Kim Vandenberg, the silver medalist in the 200 fly, was 15th to squeeze into the semifinals.

Click Here to view event results PDF file.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use