By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 14. THE sitting around has finally ended for Ian Crocker. The world-record holder in the 100 butterfly went from spectator status to athlete Thursday night as he got his Olympic program rolling with the preliminaries of his pet event. Crocker is one of the remaining obstacles between Michael Phelps and his quest for eight gold medals.
Opting for a jammer instead of the full-length legs, Crocker moved through his race in 51.95, good for the 13th seed heading into the semifinals. Crocker was the silver medalist in the event at the Athens Games and the world champion in 2003 and 2005. He took silver at the 2007 World Champs and his world-record time sits at 50.40.
The final heat of the prelims produced the top three times, with Serbia's Milorad Cavic leading the way in 50.76, good for an Olympic record. Cavic rocketed to the front at the start and held off Michael Phelps at the wall, not that Phelps was wasting too much gas. The defending champion, despite cruising, touched in 50.87, not far off his personal best.
The Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov, the bronze medalist in Athens, was third in the heat and overall as he generated a time of 51.10, slightly quicker than the 51.14 that Kenya's Jason Dunford used to win his heat and set an Olympic record that had a short shelf life. Slovenia's Peter Mankoc was timed in 51.24 and Australia's Andrew Lauterstein was next in 51.37. Japan's Takuro Fujii followed in 51.50.
The rest of the semifinal field will include Venezuela's Albert Subirats (51.71), New Zealand's Corney Swanepoel (51.78), Ukrainian Sergiy Breus (51.82), France's Fred Bousquet (51.83), China's Shi Feng (51.87), Papa New Guinea's Ryan Pini (52.00), South Africa's Lyndon Ferns (52.04) and Brazil's Kaio Almeida (52.05).
