Coventry Sets Third World Record At FINA World Short Course Championships
April 12, 2008
MANCHESTER, England - Former Auburn swimmer Kirsty Coventry picked up her third World record of the week on Saturday at the 9th FINA World Short Course Championships as she won the 200m individual medley with a time of 2:06.13. Coventry shattered the old record time of 2:07.79, set by the United States' Allison Wagner at the inaugural FINA World Short Course Championships in 1993 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. For Coventry, it is her third World record and fourth gold medal of the week. She also set new World records in the 400m IM and 200m backstroke while also winning the 100m back. Also competing in Saturday's finals was Auburn senior Kara Denby as she swam the anchor leg on the United States 400m freestyle relay team. The Americans finished fifth in the event with a time of 3:34.96 with Denby swimming the fastest split on the team, clocking a 52.80. Former Tiger Margaret Hoelzer swam the anchor leg on the relay team in the preliminary, clocking a 54.38 split to give the U.S. the No. 2 seed heading into finals. Several other Auburn swimmers were in action on Saturday, swimming in preliminary and semifinal heats. In the women's 50m backstroke, Coventry earned her way into the finals after finishing third in the semifinal with a time of 27.13. Hoelzer also swam in the semifinal, but missed the cut after finishing 14th with a time of 28.04. Current Tigers Rachel Goh and Denby swam in the preliminary heat, but failed to advance to the semis. Goh missed the cut by a hundredth of a second as she finished 17th with a time of 28.39. Denby finished 19th in the preliminary with a 28.67. In the men's 100m freestyle, former Tiger Bryan Lundquist will make his second individual finals appearance after he finished fourth in the semifinal. He was in the bottom half of the qualifiers after the preliminary, finishing 11th with a 48.42, but shaved more than a half second off his time in the semis to finish fourth and qualify for finals. Former Auburn swimmers and Olympians Mark Gangloff and George Bovell also qualified for Sunday's finals. Gangloff qualified in the 50m breaststroke after finishing seventh in the semifinals with a time of 27.07. He was fourth after the preliminary round with a 27.10. Bovell, a native of Trinidad & Tobago, qualified for finals in the 100m individual medley, finishing sixth in the semifinal with a time of 53.60. He cut more than a second and a half from his preliminary time as he snuck his way into semis by finishing 15th with a 55.25. Also swimming in the 100m IM semifinal was former Tiger Doug Van Wie. He failed to qualify after finishing 13th in the semifinal with a time of 54.67. Two former Auburn women's swimmers competed in Saturday's semifinals but missed out on a third swim. Hoelzer, a 2004 Olympian for the United States, swam in the 100m butterfly, finishing ninth in the prelim (59.19), but falling to 16th in the semifinal with a time of 1:00.49. Jana Kolukanova, a 2004 Olympian from Estonia, also missed out as she finished 10th in the 50m freestyle semifinal, barely outside of the top eight, with at time of 24.97. Her time was an improvement over her preliminary time as she clocked a 25.33 in the opening round, sneaking into semis as she finished 15th overall. 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. AUBURN MEDAL COUNT
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