By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 12. BASED on the firepower headed to the championship final of the women's 200 individual medley, the race is going to be a dandy. Four of the premier ladies racing this week will line up tomorrow morning with only three medals available. Yes, a big name is going to be shut off of the podium.
Not long after they went gold-silver in the 100 backstroke, Natalie Coughlin and Kirsty Coventry won their heats of the 200 IM, Coventry notching an Olympic record of 2:09.53 and Coughlin touching the wall in 2:11.84. Coughlin will be the fourth seed for the final, following Australia's Stephanie Rice and American Katie Hoff.
Rice was second to Coventry in the first semifinal, going 2:10.58 to place just ahead of Hoff, who was timed in 2:10.90. Rice was the winner of the 400 IM earlier in the meet, setting a world record en route to victory. Coventry has won a pair of silver medals this week and Hoff has a bronze in the 400 IM and a silver in the 400 free. Then there's Coughlin, who defended her Olympic title in the 100 back.
Canada's Julia Wilkinson and Australia's Alicia Coutts tied for the fifth spot in 2:12.03 while seventh went to Poland's Katarzyna Baranowska in 2:12.13. Japan's Asami Kitagawa and Hungary's Evelin Verraszto tied for eighth in 2:12.18, but Kitagawa, on the strength of her breaststroke leg, won the swimoff for the last slot in the final. She was timed in 2:12.02 to the 2:14.96 of the Hungarian.
