BARCELONA, July 24. A struggling Natalie Coughlin failed to get past the preliminary round of the 100 free this morning, clocking 56.98, good enough only for 31st place.<\/p>\n
Coughlin started to feel ill the night before competition started and has had a fever on and off since then. Antibiotics have not worked for her, so US officials believe she has a viral infection. As a result of her illness, she will not compete in the 400 medley relay.<\/p>\n
Coughlin's inability to swim anywhere near her ability is a huge loss to the American women\u2019s team, but the swimmer, herself, is looking at the positive: that it is better that this setback occurred now, rather than at the Olympics next year. <\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 100 freestyle<\/b>
\nNumber one-ranked Hanna-Maria Seppala of Finland was the fastest qualifier in a quick 54.82, but American legend Jenny Thompson was just 0.01 seconds behind in her best this year 54.83. They were the only two swimmers under 55 seconds. <\/p>\n
Then followed Holland\u2019s Veldhuis (55.17), Slovakia\u2019s Moravcova (55.19), Aussies Henry (55.37) and Lenton (55.44), China\u2019s Yang Yu (55.72) and world number two, Elena Popchenko from Belarus (55.82).<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 200 IM<\/b>
\nWorld record-holder Michael Phelps clocked the 10th fast swim all-time and certainly the fastest heat swim in 1:59.71. Chances are he will blast another world mark before this meet is out. <\/p>\n
Much of the talk leading into this meet centered on how well triple freestyle world record-holder Ian Thorpe would fare in this less familiar event against the world\u2019s best. Fortunately for all interested parties — and there are many — Thorpe made the second round. But just barely. The 20-year-old Aussie scraped in in a tie for 14th place, clocking 2:02.54 in what Aussie partisans hope was a relaxed swim. <\/p>\n
Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s George Bovell, an Auburn sophomore-to-be and the fourth place finisher two years ago in Fukuoka, qualified second in a PR 2:00.94 (21st all-time performer). Olympic gold medalist, Italian Massi Rosolino, was third best in 2:01.24 ahead of American Kevin Clements (2:01.43). <\/p>\n
Men\u2019s 200 backstroke<\/b>
\nAmerican world record-holder Aaron Peirsol (1:57.28) was almost a full second ahead of archrival Aussie Matt Welsh (1:58.26), with brilliant young Russian Arkady Vyatchanin in 1:59.18. Welsh and Vyatchanin tied for the silver behind Peirsol in the two-lap race.<\/p>\n
American Bryce Hunt also made the cut in 1:59.71 just 0.10 seconds outside his PR from the Duel in the Pool in April. Canadian hope Keith Beavers (2:00.56) scraped through after falling well behind in the first half of the race.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s 200 breaststroke<\/b>
\nEuropean champion, Austria\u2019s Mirna Jukic, was fastest into the next round in 2:27.91, American Amanda Beard was next in 2:27.95, with world record-holder, China\u2019s Qi Hui (2:28.74) and current title-holder, Hungary\u2019s Agnes Kovacs (2:29.74), also in the mix.<\/p>\n
Aussie two-lap world record-holder, Leisel Jones (2:28.79) and America\u2019s Kristy Kowal (2:30.41) are also into the evening session. <\/p>\n
Women's 800 free relay<\/b>
\nThe USA qualified first in the 4x200m free relay, more than two seconds ahead of China. The US squad of Rhi Jeffrey (2:00.66), Rachael Komisarz (1:59.82), Gabrielle Rose (2:01.98) and Margaret Hoelzer (2:00.18) touched first in 8:02.64. China clocked 8:04.97 while Spain was a big surprise as the third qualifier in 8:05.52.<\/p>\n
Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia and Canada round out the contestants for the final. Missing the cut were Germany, Russia and Italy.<\/p>\n
There were no lead-off swims under two minutes and only three sub-two splits: Sweden's Josefin Lillhage (1:59.80), Komisarz (1:59.82) and Britain's Karen Legg (1:59.94).<\/p>\n
Men's 800 freestyle<\/b>
\nAustralia's Grant Hackett, the overwhelming favorite, cruised a 7:55.15 to lead all qualifiers in the men's 800. Four swimmers clocked sub-8 minute efforts: Hackett, Britain's Graeme Smith (7:58.66), the USA's Larsen Jensen (7:59.18) and Canada's Kurtis MacGillivary (7:59.58). It took 8:04.74 or better to make finals.<\/p>\n
The field was weakened with the pre-Championship decision by Russia's Yuri Prilukov to pass on the 800 and concentrate on the 1500. Prilukov, 19, set a European record of 7:49+ in the 800 earlier this month and would have been seeded #2.<\/p>\n
The USA's Chad Carvin was one of three likely finalists who failed to make the cut. Carvin was 12th in 8:08.48. Australia's Steve Penfold was ninth in 8:06.48 while Israel's Shilo Ayalon was tenth in 8:07.85.<\/p>\n
Among the potential finalists who scratched were Prilukov, Italy's Emiliano Brembilla and Britain's David Davies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BARCELONA, July 24. A struggling Natalie Coughlin failed to get past the preliminary round of the 100 free this morning, clocking 56.98, good enough only for 31st place. Coughlin started<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n