ATHENS, 15 August 2004 — The Olympic swimming competition opened with a bang yesterday with world records from Michael Phelps and the Australian women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, not to mention a classic tussle between Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett and a first medal in the pool for Argentina in 68 years.
Phelps set the standard in the first medal race of the evening, taking gold in the 400m medley in a time of 4 minutes 8.26 seconds, bettering his previous mark of 4:09.09 minutes set in July 2003.
Compatriot Eric Vendt took silver in 4:11.81 with Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh winning bronze in 4:12.15. The 19-year-old Phelps, who is hoping to eclipse Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, secured the first of a possible eight golds with consummate ease, even though he admitted pre-race nerves meant he endured a sleepless night.
“The whole day I was thinking about the race,” said Phelps, who will most likely have his next opportunity for gold today if he is selected the 4x100m freestyle relay. “I didn’t sleep last night and I just swam as fast as I could,” said the 1.93-meter teenager.
Apart from almost definitely being part of the three US relay teams, Phelps is also due to compete in the 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m medley and 200m freestyle, where he will come up against Thorpe in one of the most anticipated showdowns of the Olympics.
If that race is as exciting as Thorpe’s battle with Aussie teammate Hackett in the 400m freestyle, then the crowd who manage to make it into the Olympic Aquatic Center are in for a treat. Thorpe had just enough in the tank to hold off Hackett in an enthralling race, winning in a time of 3:43.10 seconds, well outside the 21-year-old’s own world record of 3:40.08, which he set in July 2002.
“It’s great to do it at the Olympics,” said an emotional Thorpe afterward. “I didn’t realize how much it meant to me.”
Hackett, the 1500m Olympic freestyle champion from Sydney, just failed to catch his teammate in the final 50 meters and had to settle for silver in a time of 3:43.36. Klete Keller of the United States claimed bronze in 3:44.11. “I just needed a few more meters,” said Hackett, who, like everyone present, felt his tussle with Thorpe was something special. “We’ve had some great races over the years but this will go down in history,” he said. “He’s a great guy and a good friend.”
The Australian women’s 4x100m medley relay team accounted for the second world record of the evening as Alice Mills, Libby Lenton, Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry won gold in 3 minutes 35.94 seconds, beating the previous record of 3:36.00 set by Germany in July 2002.
“That was fun. I’m not hurting all now,” said Henry, who swam the final leg.
The United States took silver in a time of 3:36.39 minutes while the Netherlands held off Germany to take bronze in 3:37.59.
Meanwhile, Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine, who has had no serious opposition in the 400m medley since her Sydney win four years ago, needed to summon up all her inner strength to take gold as she was pushed all the way by Kaitlin Sandeno of the United States.
But the 22-year-old held on to take gold in a time of 4 minutes 34.83 seconds with Sandeno, who finished fourth in 2000, taking silver in a time of 4:34.95.
“That was close,” said Sandeno. “After the disappointment of Sydney, it was really great today.” Georgina Brandach took bronze in 4:37.51 to become the first Argentine swimmer to win an Olympic medal in 68 years, when Jeanette Campbell took silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Meanwhile Greek sprinters Kostadinos Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou were temporarily thrown out of Greece’s team for the Games after a drugs controversy. Reigning 200 meters champion Kenteris and training partner Thanou failed to turn up for a doping test on the eve of the Games.
The International Olympic Committee is expected to rubber-stamp the decision of the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC) after it hears the athletes’ version of events tomorrow. “The executive committee of the HOC ... decided by a majority to exclude the two athletes and their coach from the Olympic team until the responsible IOC organ decides,” HOC President Lambis Nikolaou told reporters after a four-hour meeting.
Taylan Wins Gold for Turkey With Record
Turkey’s Nurcan Taylan outmuscled Li Zhuo with a world record to claim the first gold in the weightlifting with victory in the 48 kg class. Nurcan combined a world record lift of 97.5 kg in the snatch and 112.5 kg in the clean and jerk for a world record total of 210 kg to take gold. Li had been expected to win but instead settled for silver with 205 kg. Thailand’s Aree Wiratthaworn took the bronze with 200 kg.
Synchronized Duo Dive to China’s Third Gold
Guo Jinjing and Wu Minxia collected China’s third gold medal of the opening day when they won the women’s synchronized three-meter springboard diving title.
The world champions and gold and silver medalists in the individual event four years ago had the best or equal best dive in each of the five rounds to total 336.90 points.
Defending champions Yulia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina of Russia had to settle for silver with 330.84 while Australians Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery took the bronze with 309.30.China won the first two golds of the day in shooting and have a chance of a fourth in the last event, the men’s synchronized platform diving.
Italian Montano Wins Men’s Saber Gold
Fencer Aldo Montano of Italy struck Olympic gold in the men’s individual saber beating Hungarian Zsolt Nemcsik 15-14 in a thrilling final.
“I am living a dream from my youth. Ever since I was born I was hoping for this. I can’t understand what happened,” Montana told reporters. Ukrainian Vladislav Tretiak, ranked 24th going into the competition, took the bronze medal with a 15-11 win over Dmitri Lapkes of Belarus.
Montano, a 25-year-old from Livorno, who took bronze in the world championships in Havana last year, had to fight back from an early 5-1 deficit to take the bout which went to the last possible point.
US Women Dominate After Slow Start
Swin Cash scored 19 points as the United States overcame a slow start to romp past New Zealand 99-47 on the first day of the women’s Olympic basketball tournament.
Australia, one of the few countries considered to have a chance of stopping the Americans from winning their third consecutive Olympic gold, battled past Nigeria 62-44, while China easily beat South Korea 71-54.
New Zealand jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, prompting US coach Van Chancellor to substitute his entire starting line-up, a move that gave the team the wake-up call they needed.
“They were up 7-0...and we hadn’t even thought about guarding anybody, had turned it over five times,” Chancellor said.
Australia also showed signs of rust early in their game, struggling to eke out a two-point lead by the end of the first quarter.
But Lauren Jackson, last season’s most valuable player in the WNBA, took over, hitting 13 of 19 shots for 27 points.
“We’re satisfied with the result but we can’t be with our effort. We didn’t play good defense at all and our offence didn’t really function smoothly either,” Jackson said.
“Everybody has to step up if we want to accomplish our goal, to win gold. With such a mediocre performance, we don’t deserve to achieve it. We have to improve a lot.”
