By Phillip Whitten<\/p>\n
ATHENS, August 29. THE 50 free can be a cruel mistress. Fast? Yes. Exciting? No doubt. But never faithful. No way.<\/p>\n
In the prelims, WR-holder and double Olympic 50 champ Alex Popov was eliminated. So too was two-time 100 free Olympic gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband. Bye, bye Alex. Hit the road, Hoogie. It was great knowing you but,…hit the road, jack.<\/p>\n
The semifinals brought more of the same. Bart Kizierowski, who looked so good in prelims was out. It was "adios" to Ricky Busquets, Fernando Scherer and Javier Noriega; "au revoir" to Fred Busquet.<\/p>\n
Left still standing, though, were some of the biggies.<\/p>\n
Roland Schoeman, who sparked South Africa to a WR in the 400 free relay and who placed second to Hoogie in the 100 free, posted the fast 50 of the day, 21.99.<\/p>\n
Brett Hawke set an Aussie national record with his 22.07 while Jason Lezak qualified third in 22.12.<\/p>\n
Algeria's Salim Iles was fourth with a NR 22.16.<\/p>\n
Gary Hall, the top prelim sprinter, finished in a three-way tie for fifth at 22.18.<\/p>\n
Who will win tomorrow night? <\/p>\n
WE'll have to wait and see. Just remember, the 50 is oh so fickle…<\/p>\n
\nMen 50m Freestyle Semifinals <\/b><\/p>\n
Record Name NOC Location Date
\nWR 21.64 POPOV Alexander RUS Moscow (RUS) 16 JUN 2000
\nOR 21.91 POPOV Alexander RUS Barcelona (ESP) 30 JUL 1992 <\/p>\n
Event No: 25 <\/p>\n
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. Time Time
\nBehind
\n1 1 6 SCHOEMAN Roland Mark RSA 0.65 21.99 <\/p>\n
2 1 2 HAWKE Brett AUS 0.69 22.07
\n 0.08 OC
\n3 2 6 LEZAK Jason USA 0.72 22.12
\n 0.13
\n4 1 5 ILES Salim ALG 0.70 22.16
\n 0.17
\n5 2 4 HALL Gary USA 0.74 22.18
\n 0.19
\n5 2 2 VOLYNETS Oleksandr UKR 0.84 22.18
\n 0.19
\n5 2 7 NYSTRAND Stefan SWE 0.71 22.18
\n 0.19
\n8 2 3 DRAGANJA Duje CRO 0.72 22.19
\n 0.20 <\/p>\n
9 2 5 KIZIEROWSKI Bartosz POL 0.71 22.22
\n 0.23
\n10 1 3 SICOT Julien FRA 0.76 22.26
\n 0.27
\n11 2 8 SCHERER Fernando BRA 0.74 22.27
\n 0.28
\n12 1 4 BOUSQUET Frederick FRA 0.71 22.29
\n 0.30
\n13 1 1 NORIEGA Javier ESP 0.78 22.36
\n 0.37
\n14 1 8 FERNS Lyndon RSA 0.69 22.46
\n 0.47
\n15 1 7 BUSQUETS Ricardo PUR 0.65 22.52
\n 0.53
\n16 2 1 NOVY Karel SUI 0.81 22.63
\n 0.64<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phillip Whitten ATHENS, August 29. THE 50 free can be a cruel mistress. Fast? Yes. Exciting? No doubt. But never faithful. No way. In the prelims, WR-holder and double<\/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-7910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n