How often do you get a world record in the first event, and then it only gets better from there?
men’s 50 fly finals- South African Roland Schoeman becomes the first man under 23 seconds, turning in a 22.96 in the finals. Former world record holder Ian Crocker is second in 23.12, also under his pre-Montreal WR time.
women’s 100 breast semifinals- so Jessica Hardy got herself tapped as the next Big Thing in American breaststroke before the 2004 Olympic Trials. Tonight she showed that all the buzz was right, dropping nearly a second off her prelims time and breaking Liesl Jones’ world record with a 1:06.20 The talented headcase Jones is seeded second going into the finals. Be interesting to see if that’s a good or a bad thing for her.
men’s 100 breast finals- the grudge match between Brendan Hansen and Kosuke Kitajima. Remember the dolphin kick from Athens? It’s not allowed this meet, but will be allowed starting this fall. Hansen finally gets his breakthrough individual world gold, winning in 59.37, just off his own world record. A dolphin-free Kitajima is second in 59.53
women’s 100 fly finals- great race for the Australians as Jessicah Schipper (57.23) and Libby Lenton (57.37) both go under the old championships record
men’s 200 free semis- Michael Phelps doesn’t risk a slow swim here, leading the way in 1:46.33. Grant Hackett is only 4th qualifier in 1:47.66, probably swimming a bit too conservatively here. The final shapes up as an extremely entertaining race. Look for Ryk Neethling to be the rabbit tommorrow night.
women’s 100 back semis- they’re starting to catch up a bit to Natalie Coughlin, though just how close remains to be seen. Great second semi with Coughlin (1:00.59) just edging out Antje Buschschulte (1:00.67) Big surprise is seeing Giann Rooney fail to make the finals.
women’s 200 IM finals- everyone in the sport wants to see Yanyan Wu’s world record erased from the books since she’s considered to be about as clean as Petra Schneider was. And Katie Hoff (future of American women’s swimming exhibit 1A) did everything she could to contribute to that, but fell off pace in the last ten meters. Still her 2:10.41 is the second fastest time ever in the event, and assumed to be the fastest natural time for the event.
Kirsty Coventry tuns in a 2:11.13 for the silver medal, and the fifth fastest time ever in the event. I’ll always have a soft spot for Coventry. She comes across as a very nice woman who dearly loves her country even though her country has a hard time loving her back because of her extreme paleness.
Can day 3 get any better than this?