INDIANAPOLIS, October 11. GREAT Britain\u2019s James Hickman has never won Olympic gold, but he\u2019s been remarkably consistent \u2013 and consistently excellent — over the short course 200 meters fly. <\/p>\n
In fact, since 1997 the 28 year-old has been well nigh unbeatable, setting a world record that lasted from 1998 to 2001, and winning an unprecedented four Short Course World Championship crowns in a row.<\/p>\n
With Michael Phelps scratched from the 200 fly here in Indy, Hickman\u2019s chances for a record fifth-straight victory seemed good, but he only managed to qualify third behind Russia\u2019s Nicolay Skvortsov and the USA\u2019s Michael Raab.<\/p>\n
In the final, however, Hickman made it clear he was planning on adding a fifth straight crown to his collection. On the first 50, he carved out a small quarter-second lead over Australia\u2019s Andrew Richards.<\/p>\n
Then he made his move, turning halfway through the race in 53.49 seconds and stretching the lead to almost a second over the stubborn Richards (54.38) followed by Skvortsov (54.80).<\/p>\n
The third 50 iced the victory, as Hickman turned in 1:22.88, with Richards hanging on in 1:24.05, with Romania\u2019s (and Alabama\u2019s) Ioan Gherghel overtaking Skvortsov for third.<\/p>\n
Hickman faltered on the final 50, splitting 30.53 seconds, only fifth fastest in the eight-man field. But he had built up a big lead and was able to hold on, touching in 1:53.41. Gherghel used his patented final 50 sprint to take second (1:54.06), while China\u2019s Wu Peng, sixth at the 150, grabbed third in 1:54.51.<\/p>\n
For Hickman, it was an historic fifth-straight win in the 200 fly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m on clouds right now,\u201d said Hickman after the race. \u201cIt was absolutely the most nerve-racking race of my career. The pressure just piles on after you win the first one. It\u2019s easy to win the first one because you\u2019re the hunter and you\u2019re going out to kill the prey. But when you\u2019re the one being hunted by all these boogers behind you, it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n
Hickman, who plans to retire after the European Short Course Championships in December, added: \u201cI want to stop at the top and that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing right now. December is going to be the last time I race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INDIANAPOLIS, October 11. GREAT Britain\u2019s James Hickman has never won Olympic gold, but he\u2019s been remarkably consistent \u2013 and consistently excellent — over the short course 200 meters fly. In<\/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-8259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n