By John Lohn
\nPhotos by Peter H. Bick<\/p>\n
MONTREAL, Canada, July 26. WOW. That pretty much sums up the shocking developments in the championship final of the women\u2019s 100 backstroke. While all eyes were focused on American Natalie Coughlin, the reigning Olympic champ, Zimbabwe\u2019s Kirsty Coventry slipped in and took gold with a solid time of 1:00.24. A day earlier, Coventry won silver in the 200 individual medley.<\/p>\n
Coughlin touched first at the 50-meter point and led the field through a good portion of the final lap. But, nearing the wall, Coughlin began to fade and Coventry moved ahead, winning the race out of Lane 1. More, Germany\u2019s Antje Buschschulte also passed Coughlin and picked up the silver medal in 1:00.84. Coughlin settled for the bronze with an effort of 1:00.88, slower than her semifinal time of 1:00.59.<\/p>\n
Having just concluded a stellar collegiate career at Auburn University, Coventry has established herself as one of the world\u2019s finest all-around swimmers. An elite backstroker and individual medley performer, she\u2019s also proven her worth as a middle-distance freestyler. At last summer\u2019s Olympic Games, Coventry walked away with three medals, including gold in the 200 back.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Reiko Nakamura was the fourth-place finisher in 1:01.00 and fifth place went to New Zealand\u2019s Hannah McLean (1:01.16). The sixth through eighth positions were occupied by Japan\u2019s Hanae Ito (1:01.25), Denmark\u2019s Louise Ornstedt (1:01.36) and Australia\u2019s Sophie Edington (1:01.97).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Lohn Photos by Peter H. Bick MONTREAL, Canada, July 26. WOW. That pretty much sums up the shocking developments in the championship final of the women\u2019s 100 backstroke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72945,"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":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n