By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 15. ONE more chance to turn silver into gold. That's the scenario facing Kirsty Coventry as she heads into the final of the 200 backstroke. Already with three silver medals at the Beijing Games, Coventry positioned herself for a run at gold and defending her title by leading the semifinal qualifying.
The former world-record holder in the event, Coventry posted a time of 2:07.76 to narrowly finish ahead of the 2:07.90 clocking by American Elizabeth Beisel. Coventry was exactly one second slower than the Olympic-record time she produced during the preliminaries. Look for a return to the 2:06-range to come in the final.
Australian Meagen Nay set a national record en route to the third position, thanks to a time of 2:08.09. She was followed by Japan's Reiko Nakamura, who stopped the clock in 2:08.21, just ahead of American Margaret Hoelzer (2:08.25). Hoelzer is the world-record holder in 2:06.09 and will be in the gold-medal mix when the athletes climb the blocks tomorrow.
Another Australian, Belinda Hocking was sixth into the championship final with a performance of 2:08.80. The field for the title race will also include Great Britain teenager Elizabeth Simmonds (2:08.96) and Russian Anastasia Zueva (2:09.07).
