By Stephen J. Thomas
ATHENS, Greece. August 17. UKRAINIAN Yana Klochkova completed the final leg of a unique double double — consecutive pairs of Olympic gold medals in two events, the 200m and 400m individual medley.
In fact, tonight she repeated the double she achieved at the World Champs in Barcelona last year.
It had been those that thought the 22-year-old, who has remained in Ukraine through her career, would probably find it tough to hold her crown over the shorter distance, but she proved them wrong tonight.
"I was very surprised, I was not sure I could win this race again, I am delighted," she said.
Klochkova took the first 50 fly out fast, very fast — 0.55 of a second under the world record split in 28.26. And that's compared to a highly suspect world record set in 1997 by China's Wu Yanyan.
American teen Katie Hoff was also under WR pace in second place.
Klochkova remained -0.24 under WR after the dorsal leg, Hoff was holding onto second, into her weakest leg, breaststroke.
While the other American, Amanda Beard, picked up almost two seconds on Klochkova in the breaststroke, moving from fifth to second, Hoff dropped back to sixth and Agnes Kovacs moved to third. But in the sprint home, the experienced Ukrainian kept Beard at bay, touching the pads in 2:11.14 , the fifth fastest swim all-time.
Beard took the silver and set a new American record at 2:11.70, the ninth fastest performance all-time, amazingly in her first international swim in this event. "I'm speechless, to have not competed in this event internationally and win a silver medal at the Olympics is great."
Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry took bronze, her second medal, in a new African record 2:12.72. An enthusiastic Coventry said after her race, "I'm very prowd to represent Zimbabwe, it's a great country, I have been getting plenty of support from home. I have another four years to improve for the next Olympics."
Katie Hoff finished seventh in 2:13.97, way off her PR 2:12.06 at US trials but she will learn from the experience.
Women 200m Individual Medley Finals
Record Splits Name NOC Location Date
WR 2:09.72 28.81 1:01.91 1:39.44 WU Yanyan CHN Shanghai (CHN) 17 OKT 1997
OR 2:10.68 28.70 1:01.78 1:40.05 KLOCHKOVA Yana UKR Sydney (AUS) 19 SEP 2000
Event No: 15
Rank Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m 100m 150m Time Time
Behind
1 4 KLOCHKOVA Yana UKR 0.79 (1) 28.26 (1) 1:01.67
33.41 (1) 1:40.40
38.73 2:11.14
30.74
2 5 BEARD Amanda USA 0.72 (4) 29.17 (5) 1:03.73
34.56 (2) 1:40.65
36.92 2:11.70
31.05 0.56 AM
3 6 COVENTRY Kirsty ZIM 0.73 (6) 29.96 (=3) 1:02.75
32.79 (4) 1:41.42
38.67 2:12.72
31.30 1.58 AF
4 8 KOVACS Agnes HUN 0.81 (3) 28.73 (6) 1:03.78
35.05 (3) 1:41.15
37.37 2:13.58
32.43 2.44
5 1 ROHMANN Teresa GER 0.93 (7) 30.06 (8) 1:05.17
35.11 (7) 1:42.99
37.82 2:13.70
30.71 2.56
6 2 CARROLL Lara AUS 0.83 (8) 30.17 (=3) 1:02.75
32.58 (5) 1:41.56
38.81 2:13.74
32.18 2.60
7 3 HOFF Katie USA 0.78 (2) 28.60 (2) 1:02.29
33.69 (6) 1:41.57
39.28 2:13.97
32.40 2.83
8 7 CASLARU Beatrice ROM 0.81 (5) 29.56 (7) 1:04.34
34.78 (8) 1:43.53
39.19 2:15.40
31.87 4.26