By Stephen J. Thomas<\/p>\n
ATHENS, Greece August 15. WORLD record-holder Natalie Coughlin continued her progress toward gold with a new Olympic record 1:00.17 to dominate the semifinals. <\/p>\n
Despite a strong northerly wind that has blown up fot the first time this evening Coughlin was in control with nearest rival French champ Laure Manaudou second in 1:00.88, Denmark\u2019s Louise Ornstedt next (1:01.12), followed by USA\u2019s Haley Cope (PR 1:01.13) and Spain\u2019s Nina Zhivanevskaya (1:01.19) in a tight finish. <\/p>\n
Five of the finalists came from Coughlin\u2019s semi. Germany\u2019s world champ Antje Buschschulte took the first semifinal in 1:00.94 with Zimbabwe\u2019s Kirsty Coventry proving this morning\u2019s performance was no flash in the pan lowering her African record by 0.39 of a second to touch in 1:01.21. Japanese Reiko Nakamura (1:01.24) rounded the finalists. <\/p>\n
Aussie backstroker Giaan Rooney missed the cut but swam a national record 1:01.41, enough to suggest she will hold up her leg of the medley relay.<\/p>\n
Women 100m Backstroke Semifinals <\/b><\/p>\n
Record Split Name NOC Location Date
\nWR 59.58 28.86
\n COUGHLIN Natalie USA Fort Lauderdale (USA) 13 AUG 2002
\nOR 1:00.21 29.80
\n MOCANU Diana Iuliana ROM Sydney (AUS) 18 SEP 2000 <\/p>\n
Event No: 7 <\/p>\n
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m Time Time
\nBehind
\n1 2 5 COUGHLIN Natalie USA 0.62 29.21 1:00.17
\n30.96 OR
\n2 2 4 MANAUDOU Laure FRA 0.70 29.65 1:00.88
\n31.23 0.71
\n3 1 3 BUSCHSCHULTE Antje GER 0.64 29.61 1:00.94
\n31.33 0.77
\n4 2 1 OERNSTEDT Louise DEN 0.72 29.83 1:01.12
\n31.29 0.95
\n5 2 7 COPE Haley USA 0.67 29.75 1:01.13
\n31.38 0.96
\n6 2 6 ZHIVANEVSKAYA Nina ESP 0.69 29.78 1:01.19
\n31.41 1.02
\n7 1 5 COVENTRY Kirsty ZIM 0.70 30.07 1:01.21
\n31.14 1.04 AF
\n8 1 4 NAKAMURA Reiko JPN 0.63 29.55 1:01.24
\n31.69 1.07 <\/p>\n
9 1 2 ROONEY Giaan AUS 0.67 29.98 1:01.41
\n31.43 1.24 OC
\n10 1 6 KOMAROVA Stanislava RUS 0.79 30.19 1:01.63
\n31.44 1.46
\n11 2 3 INADA Noriko JPN 0.66 29.96 1:01.74
\n31.78 1.57
\n12 2 2 HLAVACKOVA Ilona CZE 0.62 29.84 1:01.81
\n31.97 1.64
\n13 1 7 SEXTON Katy GBR 0.73 30.50 1:01.96
\n31.46 1.79
\n14 1 8 ZHAN Shu CHN 0.68 30.39 1:02.10
\n31.71 1.93
\n15 2 8 GAO Chang CHN 0.79 30.20 1:02.17
\n31.97 2.00
\n16 1 1 PRICE Sarah GBR 0.69 29.96 1:02.48
\n32.52 2.31<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Stephen J. Thomas ATHENS, Greece August 15. WORLD record-holder Natalie Coughlin continued her progress toward gold with a new Olympic record 1:00.17 to dominate the semifinals. Despite a strong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71910,"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-7824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n