By John Lohn
\nPhotos by Peter H. Bick<\/p>\n
MONTREAL, Canada, July 28. IT was supposed to be Roland Schoeman\u2019s show, and for the first half of the race, that certainly was the case. But, at the finish of the men\u2019s 100-meter freestyle on Thursday night, Italy\u2019s Filippo Magnini was the man who finished on top. Magnini posted the third-fastest time in history and claimed the gold medal in 48.12.<\/p>\n
Schoeman, from South Africa, turned at the 50-meter mark in a ludicrous split of 22.42 and appeared to be in position to challenge the 47.84 world record of the Netherlands\u2019 Pieter van den Hoogenband. But, Schoeman couldn\u2019t maintain his obscene pace and finished in 48.28. Schoeman\u2019s countryman, Ryk Neethling, won bronze in a PR 48.34. Neethling picked up bronze earlier in the week in the 200 free.<\/p>\n
Magnini was fourth at the turn, but gained with each stroke during the final 50 meters. When he looked at the scoreboard and realized his championship, the Italian celebrated with a fist pump. The United States\u2019 Jason Lezak surged to fourth place in 48.74 and Croatia\u2019s Duje Draganja was the fifth-place finisher, as he was timed in 48.89.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Brent Hayden dipped to NR 48.92 for sixth place and American Michael Phelps was seventh, going 48.99. Phelps took the challenge of the 100 freestyle to prove his worth in an expanded number of events. Eventually, Phelps could become a major player in the event, but must improve his opening 50 meters. The eighth-place slot went to France\u2019s Amaury Leveaux (49.55).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Lohn Photos by Peter H. Bick MONTREAL, Canada, July 28. IT was supposed to be Roland Schoeman\u2019s show, and for the first half of the race, that certainly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72955,"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-9809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n