Beijing Olympic Games

Swim schedule switch results in fast heats

By ANDREW DAMPF, AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP)—The switch to morning swimming finals hasn’t slowed many athletes inside the Water Cube. But it has created fast heats in the evening.

One world record and four Olympic records were set in Sunday’s evening session.

“I kind of expected that, with the preliminaries at night and the finals in the morning,” said Natalie Coughlin, the American world record holder who qualified fourth in the 100-meter backstroke in 59.69 seconds. “Subconsciously, you are trying really hard because it’s night.”

The three swimmers who beat Coughlin—Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe (59.00), Reiko Nakamura of Japan (59.36) and Anastasia Zueva of Russia (59.61)—set one Olympic record after another in the final three heats of the event.

“It’s due to many developments like in swimsuits and in technology and pools,” the unheralded Zueva said.

The U.S. team set a world record in the opening 400 freestyle relay heat, and Leisel Jones of Australia also set an Olympic record in the 100 breaststroke heats, touching in 1:05.64.

“I wasn’t exerting myself at all. I wasn’t even puffing at the end,” said Jones, who is under immense pressure to back up her three-year dominance in the discipline with an Olympic victory.

“I was watching all the (heats) yesterday and saw how fast the men’s breaststroke was and the women’s fly were exceptionally fast,” Jones said. “It just was so hard to make a semi, I wasn’t sure what ours was going to be like. So I sort of mentally prepared for that as well, that it wasn’t going to be easy tonight. I couldn’t just cruise.”

Behind Jones, Yuliya Efimova qualified second with a European record 1:06.08, and Mirna Jukic of Austria was third in 1:07.06.

“I was very surprised. I’ve never swam that fast before. I dropped tenths of seconds off my best time,” Jukic said. “I think I was the European record holder for about a minute, but I’ll take that.

“I’m actually a 200 breaststroker, so I’m not worried about not having enough for tomorrow. Nobody expected me to contend in the 100. Not me, not my coach, but here I am.”

The normal schedule of morning heats with evening finals was flip-flopped for these games to accommodate American TV, which is focusing on Michael Phelps’ attempt to win a record eight gold medals.

Phelps qualified fourth in the 200 freestyle heats, the one heat of Sunday’s session without any records.

Phelps’ American teammate Matt Grevers set an Olympic mark in the 100 back heats, with defending champion Aaron Piersol in third position. The silver medalist from four years ago, Markus Rogan of Austria, barely made the semifinals in 13th place.

“Not so good. I’m going to have to concentrate more tomorrow,” Rogan said. “It’s prelims, just go through, but in the evening people are in a lot better shape. In the morning, people don’t go their seed times.”

Defending champion Laure Manaudou of France took the eighth and final qualifying spot in the 400 free, clocking 4:04.93.

“It will be a challenge racing in an outside lane,” said Manaudou, who broke her deal with Arena and wore Speedo’s LZR suit. “I always struggle at the start of competitions.”

Manaudou also qualified fifth in the 100 back.

Federica Pellegrini led the 400 free heats with an Olympic record 4:02.19.

At the 2004 Athens Games, Pellegrini became the youngest Italian athlete to win an individual Olympic medal when she took silver in the 200 free.

Pellegrini was pushed by Rebecca Adlington of Britain in her heat, with the two sprinting the final 50 meters. Adlington qualified second in 4:02.24.

“I’m really happy with that. It’s a PB for me,” Adlington said. “I really wanted to improve on what I did at trials. I think we were both battling off each other, just to get a time for the final.”