By John Lohn
\nPhotos by Peter H. Bick<\/p>\n
MONTREAL, Canada, July 26. SEVERAL months before the World Championships got rolling, there was talk of a one-two finish for the United States in the men\u2019s 100 backstroke. Now, that possibility has become a reality. Leaving no doubt that America owns the two-lap dorsal, Aaron Peirsol and Randall Bal earned gold and silver on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The world-record holder, Peirsol posted a time of 53.62, allowing him to reach the wall comfortably ahead of Bal, who finished with a mark of 54.02. Peirsol was the leader at the halfway mark and was under world-record pace before slowing slightly in the closing 50. From Longhorn Aquatics, Peirsol owns five of the six fastest times in history, including his global standard of 53.17.<\/p>\n
Better known for his ability in the individual medley disciplines, Hungary\u2019s Laszlo Cseh claimed the bronze medal, as his swim of 54.27 held off the 54.31 mark of Japan\u2019s Tomomi Morita. Cseh is the overwhelming favorite to win gold in the 400 I.M. and is expected to earn a place on the medal podium in the 200 I.M.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Arkady Vyatchanin was fifth in 54.50 and sixth place went to Greece\u2019s Aristeidis Grigoriadis in 54.61. The Olympic silver medalist, Austria\u2019s Markus Rogan was seventh with a time of 54.81 and was followed in eighth by Slovenia\u2019s Blaz Medvesek (55.13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Lohn Photos by Peter H. Bick MONTREAL, Canada, July 26. SEVERAL months before the World Championships got rolling, there was talk of a one-two finish for the United<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72947,"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-9788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n