Coventry Wins Second Gold Medal At World Short Course Championships
April 10, 2008
MANCHESTER, England - Former Auburn swimmer Kirsty Coventry earned her second gold medal in as many days on Thursday as she won the 100m backstroke at the 9th FINA World Short Course Championships in Manchester, England. Coventry, a three-time Olympic medalist from Zimbabwe, won the event with a time of 57.10, breaking the meet and national record time of 57.99 that she set in the semifinals. She is coming off her World record on Wednesday in the 400m IM - her second World record of 2008. Coventry led a pack of three Tigers in the 100m back as Australia's Rachel Goh, who took the year off from the Auburn swim team to compete in Olympic Trials, finished fourth behind her with an Australian national record time of 57.83. The time breaks the Aussie record time of 58.10 that she set in semifinals. Margaret Hoelzer, of Huntsville, Ala., was the top American in the race as she finished sixth with a time of 58.22. Also competing in finals on Thursday were Olympic gold medalist Mark Gangloff and current Auburn sophomore Maggie Bird. Gangloff swam in the 100m breaststroke, taking a tie for fourth with a time of 58.14. He was the last qualifier to earn his way into the final and finished in the tie for fourth while swimming in lane eight. Bird, a native of Muncie, Ind., swam in the 800m freestyle, finishing ninth with a time of 8:28.56. She is competing this week on her first national team. Former Tiger Doug Van Wie came close to picking up his second medal of the meet as he swam on the American 800m freestyle relay team. The team was the top seed heading into the finals after winning the preliminary with a time of 7:02.51. But, despite dropping two seconds off their time, the Untied States team of Ryan Lochte, Robert Margalis, Larsen Jensen and Van Wie finished fourth with a time of 7:00.19. Van Wie swam the anchor leg, clocking a 1:44.90 split. The second-fastest one on the team behind Lochte's 1:44.15. Several Auburn swimmers also competed in semifinals during Thursday's evening session. Coventry earned a spot in her third final of the meet after she finished second in the 100m individual medley semifinal with a time of 1:00.12. She set a new national record with the time, breaking the record she set in the preliminary with her time of 1:00.62. Auburn senior Kara Denby earned her way into her first final of the meet, taking seventh in the 100m freestyle. She entered the semifinals as the second seed after clocking a 53.34 in prelims, following it up with a 53.78 in semifinals to earn one of the eight finals spots. Former Auburn swimmer Bryan Lundquist also earned his way into his first individual final of the meet after winning a gold medal along with Van Wie on Wednesday as part of the 400m free relay team. He finished fourth in the 50m freestyle with at time of 21.55 to earn his way into tomorrow's finals. He entered the semifinal round as the top seed after touching in at 21.44 in the preliminary. Former Tiger and Olympic bronze medalist George Bovell also competed in the 50m free semifinals. He finished in a tie for ninth with Algeria's Nabil Kebbab after clocking a 21.77, missing the cut by five hundredths of a second. But, he would have a second shot as a withdrawal forced a swim-off between Bovell and Kebbab. Both swimmers went slower in the swim-off, but it was Kebbab touching in three hundredths of a second before Bovell to take the spot in the finals. Hoelzer also swam in a semifinal on Thursday, but came up short in a finals bid. She posted a time of 26.66 in the 50m butterfly - 16 hundredths of a second quicker than her preliminary time - but it was not fast enough to move on to the finals. In all, 11 current and former Auburn swimmers are competing this week at the 9th FINA World Short Course Championships at the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, England. Former Auburn swimmer and head coach David Marsh is also at the meet this week, serving as the United States women's team head coach. Fans can follow along with live timing at www.OmegaTiming.com or watch a free video Webcast at http://web.wcsn.com/schedule/index.jsp?s=34001&e=fina_worlds_2008. For more information, check out the official Championships Web page at www.Manchester2008.org.
|
 
|
