Canada captures silver in 4x100
Jul 25, 2005 5:36:39 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2005 5:36:39 GMT -5
www.tsn.ca/headlines/main_story.asp?id=131307
MONTREAL (CP) - Canada's men's 4x100-metre team turned to a winning tradition to help erase some bad memories and won a silver medal in Sunday's opening night of swimming at the world aquatic championships.
While the men celebrated Canada's first world championship medal since 1998, Brittany Reimer of Surrey, B.C., just missed the podium, finishing fourth in the women's 400-metre freestyle.
The relay team of Yannick Lupien of Laval, Que., Rick Say of Victoria and Mike Mintenko and Brent Hayden of Vancouver, walked onto the pool deck wearing Montreal Canadiens jerseys, then scored a big goal by finishing second to the United States.
''Because this is Montreal, how many people have had the Canadiens as their favourite team?'' said Lupien, who wore No. 10 in honour of Montreal legend Guy Lafleur and to celebrate his 10th year on the national team. ''Guy Lafleur is a lot like me. He speaks up loud and makes waves.''
The medal was like a dream for Say who lived through the disappointment of Canada not winning a medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
''It's great to have these hanging around our neck,'' he said.
''We came back from the Olympics with the media saying things aren't very good, we're not winning medals. This was really important to us. This shows swimming is going in the right direction.''
The U.S. won the race in a world championship record time of three minutes 13.77 seconds, which was six-10ths off the world record.
Canada was timed in 3:16.44, breaking the Canadian record the team set that morning during the preliminaries. Australia was third in 3:17.56.
Reimer finished just 7-100ths of a second out of the medals. The 17-year-old advanced to the final by breaking her own Canadian record in the morning preliminaries.
The lanky teenager showed potential at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona by finishing fifth in the 400 metres and fourth in the 800. She struggled at last summer's Olympics in Athens, where her best individual finish was 16th.
''I think I had to prove I was still around,'' said Reimer, who swam 4:07.32.
''I wasn't a 15-year-old that came out one meet and did well and is never going to do well again. I'm really proud of myself.''
Olympic gold medallist Laure Manaudou of France won the race in 4:06.44. Ai Shibata of Japan was second in 4:06.74 followed by Caitlin McClatchey of Britain in 4:07.25.
Roland Schoeman of South Africa set a world record in the semifinals of the 50-metre butterfly. His time of 22.01 broke the old mark of 23.30 held by American Ian Crocker.
American superstar Michael Phelps started the day by failing to qualify for the finals of the men's 400 freestyle, dashing the anticipated showdown between him and Australia's Grant Hackett. Phelps still managed to collect a gold as a member of the U.S. rely team.
''I have to say I was a little happier tonight than I was this morning,'' said Phelps, who won six gold medals at last year's Athens Olympics.
Hackett won the 400 freestyle in 3:42.91. Russia's Yuri Prilukov took silver in 3:44.44 while Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was third in 3:46.08.
''I'm really happy with that swim and hopefully it can just give me momentum,'' said Hackett, who had won silver in the 400 metres at the last three world championships and two Olympics behind countryman Ian Thorpe.
''It's a shame Michael wasn't in the race.''
The 13,000-seat stadium was about half full for the finals on a warm evening.
Phelps, 20, swam a pedestrian time of 3:50.53 in the 400 preliminaries, leaving him 18th overall. He entered the 400 metres to see if it might be an event he can swim at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
''It's not the way I wanted to start off,'' said Phelps.
''I felt good in the warmup. In the race it wasn't there.''
Reimer's time of 4:08.28 in the preliminaries sliced 1.06 seconds off the mark she set at the 2003 world championships. She went into the final with the fastest qualifying time.
Besides winning a medal, Mintenko also advanced to the final of the 50 butterfly. Montreal's Thomas Kindler failed to advance.
In other events, Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., failed to move onto the finals of the 100-metre butterfly. Lacroix swam a time of 1:00.33 to finish 14th in the semifinals.
Australia's Jessicah Schipper won the semifinals in a time of 57.75. That broke the world championship record of 57.91 she had set in the preliminaries.
Elizabeth Warden of Toronto didn't make the final of the 200-metre individual medley after swimming 2:17.02.
Mike Brown of Calgary finished 11th overall in the semifinals of the 100-metre breaststroke and failed to move on.
World record holder Brendan Hansen of the U.S. won the semifinals in 59.75 seconds. Brown was clocked in 1:01.60.
In other events Sunday, the Canadian men's water polo team beat China 11-5 in a consolation game. They play Japan Tuesday morning to determine 13th place in the 16-team tournament. That would match the team's best world championship performance.
The women's team faces Greece Monday in a sudden-death quarter-final game.
In diving, Wegadesk Gorup-Paul and Riley McCormick of Victoria finished 11th in the men's 10-metre synchronized event, which was won by Dmitry Dobroskok and Gleb Galperin of Russia.
Jinghui Yang and Jia Hu of China took silver and Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor, with Britain's first ever world championship medal, won bronze.
Mandy Moran, of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Martha Dale of Edmonton, finished seventh in the women's three-metre synchro event.
China's Ting Li and Jingjing Guo won the competition.
Germany's Ditte Kotzian and Conny Schmalfuss finished second with Kristina Ishchenko and Olena Fedorova of Ukraine collecting the bronze.
For Guo it was her second gold medal of the championships to go along with her win in the three-metre springboard. It's also the third consecutive world championships where she's won gold in both events.
Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada's chief executive officer, said it was a promising start to the week.
''That was a nice day,'' he said.
''Everyday is a new day. We have to get up tomorrow ready to run.''
MONTREAL (CP) - Canada's men's 4x100-metre team turned to a winning tradition to help erase some bad memories and won a silver medal in Sunday's opening night of swimming at the world aquatic championships.
While the men celebrated Canada's first world championship medal since 1998, Brittany Reimer of Surrey, B.C., just missed the podium, finishing fourth in the women's 400-metre freestyle.
The relay team of Yannick Lupien of Laval, Que., Rick Say of Victoria and Mike Mintenko and Brent Hayden of Vancouver, walked onto the pool deck wearing Montreal Canadiens jerseys, then scored a big goal by finishing second to the United States.
''Because this is Montreal, how many people have had the Canadiens as their favourite team?'' said Lupien, who wore No. 10 in honour of Montreal legend Guy Lafleur and to celebrate his 10th year on the national team. ''Guy Lafleur is a lot like me. He speaks up loud and makes waves.''
The medal was like a dream for Say who lived through the disappointment of Canada not winning a medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
''It's great to have these hanging around our neck,'' he said.
''We came back from the Olympics with the media saying things aren't very good, we're not winning medals. This was really important to us. This shows swimming is going in the right direction.''
The U.S. won the race in a world championship record time of three minutes 13.77 seconds, which was six-10ths off the world record.
Canada was timed in 3:16.44, breaking the Canadian record the team set that morning during the preliminaries. Australia was third in 3:17.56.
Reimer finished just 7-100ths of a second out of the medals. The 17-year-old advanced to the final by breaking her own Canadian record in the morning preliminaries.
The lanky teenager showed potential at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona by finishing fifth in the 400 metres and fourth in the 800. She struggled at last summer's Olympics in Athens, where her best individual finish was 16th.
''I think I had to prove I was still around,'' said Reimer, who swam 4:07.32.
''I wasn't a 15-year-old that came out one meet and did well and is never going to do well again. I'm really proud of myself.''
Olympic gold medallist Laure Manaudou of France won the race in 4:06.44. Ai Shibata of Japan was second in 4:06.74 followed by Caitlin McClatchey of Britain in 4:07.25.
Roland Schoeman of South Africa set a world record in the semifinals of the 50-metre butterfly. His time of 22.01 broke the old mark of 23.30 held by American Ian Crocker.
American superstar Michael Phelps started the day by failing to qualify for the finals of the men's 400 freestyle, dashing the anticipated showdown between him and Australia's Grant Hackett. Phelps still managed to collect a gold as a member of the U.S. rely team.
''I have to say I was a little happier tonight than I was this morning,'' said Phelps, who won six gold medals at last year's Athens Olympics.
Hackett won the 400 freestyle in 3:42.91. Russia's Yuri Prilukov took silver in 3:44.44 while Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was third in 3:46.08.
''I'm really happy with that swim and hopefully it can just give me momentum,'' said Hackett, who had won silver in the 400 metres at the last three world championships and two Olympics behind countryman Ian Thorpe.
''It's a shame Michael wasn't in the race.''
The 13,000-seat stadium was about half full for the finals on a warm evening.
Phelps, 20, swam a pedestrian time of 3:50.53 in the 400 preliminaries, leaving him 18th overall. He entered the 400 metres to see if it might be an event he can swim at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
''It's not the way I wanted to start off,'' said Phelps.
''I felt good in the warmup. In the race it wasn't there.''
Reimer's time of 4:08.28 in the preliminaries sliced 1.06 seconds off the mark she set at the 2003 world championships. She went into the final with the fastest qualifying time.
Besides winning a medal, Mintenko also advanced to the final of the 50 butterfly. Montreal's Thomas Kindler failed to advance.
In other events, Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., failed to move onto the finals of the 100-metre butterfly. Lacroix swam a time of 1:00.33 to finish 14th in the semifinals.
Australia's Jessicah Schipper won the semifinals in a time of 57.75. That broke the world championship record of 57.91 she had set in the preliminaries.
Elizabeth Warden of Toronto didn't make the final of the 200-metre individual medley after swimming 2:17.02.
Mike Brown of Calgary finished 11th overall in the semifinals of the 100-metre breaststroke and failed to move on.
World record holder Brendan Hansen of the U.S. won the semifinals in 59.75 seconds. Brown was clocked in 1:01.60.
In other events Sunday, the Canadian men's water polo team beat China 11-5 in a consolation game. They play Japan Tuesday morning to determine 13th place in the 16-team tournament. That would match the team's best world championship performance.
The women's team faces Greece Monday in a sudden-death quarter-final game.
In diving, Wegadesk Gorup-Paul and Riley McCormick of Victoria finished 11th in the men's 10-metre synchronized event, which was won by Dmitry Dobroskok and Gleb Galperin of Russia.
Jinghui Yang and Jia Hu of China took silver and Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor, with Britain's first ever world championship medal, won bronze.
Mandy Moran, of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Martha Dale of Edmonton, finished seventh in the women's three-metre synchro event.
China's Ting Li and Jingjing Guo won the competition.
Germany's Ditte Kotzian and Conny Schmalfuss finished second with Kristina Ishchenko and Olena Fedorova of Ukraine collecting the bronze.
For Guo it was her second gold medal of the championships to go along with her win in the three-metre springboard. It's also the third consecutive world championships where she's won gold in both events.
Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada's chief executive officer, said it was a promising start to the week.
''That was a nice day,'' he said.
''Everyday is a new day. We have to get up tomorrow ready to run.''
