SHANGHAI – Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea showed he’s back in top form and Italy’s Federica Pellegrini remained unbeatable in the 400-meter freestyle on the opening night of traditional swimming at the world championships Sunday.
Michael Phelps’ first race ended in disappointment, meanwhile, as the United States had to settle for bronze in the 4-x-100 relay behind surprise winner Australia and runner-up France.
Phelps’ leadoff leg put the Americans second, but they dropped from there and Australia led from start to finish, with former sprint world record holder Eamon Sullivan holding off France’s Fabien Gilot in the anchor leg.
It was the first time the American men failed to win a relay since the 2007 worlds in Melbourne, Australia, when Ian Crocker jumped in too early on an exchange in the morning heats, resulting in a disqualification.
“It’s tough not starting off how we want to,” Phelps said. “I said I wanted to be faster than I was last year and I was faster than I was last year. It stinks but I think it will give us a little bit of motivation for the rest of the meet.”
The Netherlands won the women’s relay with the same four swimmers who took the title at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 worlds: Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Marleen Veldhuis and Femke Heemskerk.
Park took the lead back midway through the men’s 400 free then pulled away over the last two laps to touch in 3 minutes, 42.04 seconds, a distant 1.20 seconds in front of rising Chinese rival Sun Yang.
It was a sharp contrast from the last worlds in Rome two years ago, when Park failed to even make the final in this event.
“I (was) glad to swim in lane one, which allowed me to fully concentrate on my own tempo and not to get distracted from the competition,” Park said.
Defending champion and world record holder Paul Biedermann of Germany settled for third, 2.10 back.
“I’m really pleased with this time,” Biedermann said. “It’s the best I could do at the moment. I felt pretty bad during the race. … I saw Park and I thought, ‘Well this guy is away, don’t look at him anymore, look at silver or bronze.'”
In the women’s race, Pellegrini was only fifth at the race’s midpoint, but then surged into the lead one lap later and cruised to victory in 4:01.97.
Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington showed why she’s a strong favourite for gold next year at her home London Games by taking silver, albeit a distant 2.04 behind, while Camille Muffat of France took the bronze, 2.09 back.
“I knew I could have a race like this and it went perfectly,” Pellegrini said. “This gold is different from the one two years ago. I approach races differently now – I eat and sleep, I’m much calmer.”
Park’s gold at the 2008 Beijing Games was South Korea’s first Olympic victory in swimming and it made him immensely popular at home, having also won this event at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne, Australia.
After his Rome fiasco, Park showed signs of a recovery by sweeping the 200 and 400 free at the Guangzhou Asian Games in November, and now he will clearly go into next year’s London Olympics as the favourite again.
The Australian men’s relay squad has also itself up well for London, and a possible repeat of its victory at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
“We probably haven’t made it too public but deep down this is what we wanted for a long time,” Sullivan said. “It gives us a great opportunity next year to repeat Sydney. We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the experience,” he said. “Next year’s going to be about building towards that and making sure we follow up this with the gold.”
Before an enthusiastic crowd at the freshly built Oriental Sports Center, swimmers were introduced before their events one by one under a spotlight, with the rest of the lights in the arena turned off like before boxing bouts.
Cesar Cielo, the Brazilian cleared of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport three days ago, led the 50 free semifinals in 23.19, while Geoff Huegill of Australia was second, 0.07 behind, to qualify for his first worlds final since 2003.
Florent Manaudou of France touched third, 0.13 back, while South African veteran Roland Schoeman and defending champion Milorad Cavic of Serbia, who is recovering from back surgery, failed to qualify in ninth and 12th places, respectively.
Alexander Dale Oen of Norway was fastest in the 100 breaststroke semifinals, maintaining his focus following the twin tragedies in his country that killed at least 89 people.
“Life is more than swimming,” said Dale Oen, who grew teary eyed when asked after morning heats about Friday’s bombing in Oslo and shootings on a nearby island. “What’s happening back home really puts things in perspective. It’s been terrible. Terrible. The whole day has just been emotional.”
Olympic champion Stephanie Rice of Australia led the 200 individual medley semifinals in 2:09.65, with defending champion and world record holder Arianna Kukors of the United States second, 0.18 behind. Ye Shiwen of China qualified third, 0.43 back.
Olympic silver medallist Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who took last year off, failed to qualify in ninth, and recent short-course world champion Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain also missed the final in 10th.
American Dana Vollmer led the 100 butterfly semifinals in 56.47, a massive 0.71 in front of second-place qualifier Lu Ying of China, with defending champion Sarah Sjoestrom of Sweden third, 0.82 back.
Comments