By Norbert Agh<\/p>\n
ATHENS, August 17. HUNGARIAN teen phenom Dani Gyurta, 15, retained his #1 ranking in the men's 200m breaststroke from prelims by posting the fastest semifinal time, a national record 2:10.75.<\/p>\n
It is believed that Gyurta is the youngest man to qualify first for an Olympic swimming final.<\/p>\n
The confident 15 year-old swam his race with an amazing 1:06.21 back half of the race — the fastest second 100 of a 200 breast ever swum.<\/p>\n
We first encountered the precocious Dani when he was 11. Then he matter-of-factly explained to Swimming World<\/i> that he was going to win the 200 breast at the 2004 Olympic Games, "probably in 2:08."<\/p>\n
In April each year — when he turned 12, 13, 14 and 15 — he repeated his prediction. But despite the large leaps in time that he made every year, no one took seriously the possibility he might win a medal. In 2008? You bet. But in '04? No way.<\/p>\n
Now, everyone is taking him seriously indeed. That includes WR-holder Brendan Hansen, second in 2:10.81 and his nemesis, Kosuke Kitajima, third in 2:10.86.<\/p>\n
The final shapes up as an exciting one, as the remaining qualifiers, save Aussie Jim Piper, are all up-and-coming youngsters.<\/p>\n
Among the nonqualifiers: South African Terence Parkin, silver medalist in this event in Sydney.<\/p>\n
\nMen 200m Breaststroke Semifinals<\/b><\/p>\n
Record Splits Name NOC Location Date
\nWR 2:09.04 29.22 1:01.88 1:35.38 HANSEN Brendan USA Long Beach (USA) 11 JUL 2004
\nOR 2:10.16 30.43 1:03.91 1:37.12 BARROWMAN Mike USA Barcelona (ESP) 29 JUL 1992 <\/p>\n
Event No: 18 <\/p>\n
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m 100m 150m Time Time
\nBehind
\n1 2 4 GYURTA Daniel HUN 0.83 30.64 1:04.54
\n33.90 1:37.59
\n33.05 2:10.75
\n33.16
\n2 2 3 HANSEN Brendan USA 0.70 29.61 1:02.83
\n33.22 1:36.92
\n34.09 2:10.81
\n33.89 0.06
\n3 1 4 KITAJIMA Kosuke JPN 0.72 29.41 1:02.58
\n33.17 1:36.36
\n33.78 2:10.86
\n34.50 0.11
\n4 2 5 BOSSINI Paolo ITA 0.84 30.17 1:03.73
\n33.56 1:37.88
\n34.15 2:11.76
\n33.88 1.01
\n5 2 2 USHER Scott USA 0.73 30.04 1:03.42
\n33.38 1:37.60
\n34.18 2:12.00
\n34.40 1.25
\n6 1 5 BROWN Mike CAN 0.82 30.49 1:03.85
\n33.36 1:37.83
\n33.98 2:12.14
\n34.31 1.39
\n7 1 3 POLYAKOV Vladislav KAZ 0.79 29.67 1:03.38
\n33.71 1:37.82
\n34.44 2:12.19
\n34.37 1.44
\n8 1 2 PIPER Jim AUS 0.80 29.79 1:03.21
\n33.42 1:37.46
\n34.25 2:12.22
\n34.76 1.47 <\/p>\n
9 1 6 FALKO Grigori RUS 0.87 30.67 1:04.43
\n33.76 1:38.31
\n33.88 2:12.42
\n34.11 1.67
\n10 1 1 BODOR Richard HUN 0.79 30.08 1:03.49
\n33.41 1:37.78
\n34.29 2:12.76
\n34.98 2.01
\n11 2 7 IMAMURA Genki JPN 0.72 30.54 1:04.48
\n33.94 1:38.76
\n34.28 2:12.86
\n34.10 2.11
\n12 1 7 PARKIN Terence RSA 0.79 30.46 1:04.43
\n33.97 1:38.85
\n34.42 2:13.58
\n34.73 2.83
\n13 2 1 PODOPRIGORA Maxim AUT 0.85 30.80 1:05.49
\n34.69 1:39.87
\n34.38 2:14.66
\n34.79 3.91
\n14 2 8 LAI Zhongjian CHN 0.82 30.86 1:05.32
\n34.46 1:40.18
\n34.86 2:14.94
\n34.76 4.19
\n15 1 8 COOK Christopher GBR 0.78 30.19 1:05.00
\n34.81 1:39.88
\n34.88 2:15.91
\n36.03 5.16
\n 2 6 EDMOND Ian GBR 0.80 <\/p>\n
DSQ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Norbert Agh ATHENS, August 17. HUNGARIAN teen phenom Dani Gyurta, 15, retained his #1 ranking in the men's 200m breaststroke from prelims by posting the fastest semifinal time, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n