By Stephen J. Thomas
ATHENS, Greece August 18. REIGNING Olympic 100 meter freestyle champion Inge de Bruijn let her main rivals know they will be in for a fight if they want to wrest her title from her when she splashed to a convincing 54.43, the fastest time in the first round.
The Americans took the next two spots with Kara-Lynn Joyce touching in 54.53 and American record-holder Natalie Coughlin following in 54.82.
The Aussies were not far away, with world record-holder Libby Lenton (54.89) next and Jodie Henry (55.13) in the seventh spot.
Local girl Nery Niangkouara swam an impressive Greek record 55.12 to take sixth place.
French sprint star Malia Metella clocked 55.08, Slovakian Martina Moravcova showed a return to form touching in 55.17, Italian 200-meter silver medalist from last night Federica Pellegrini went 55.41, Alena Popchanka from Belarus clocked 55.49 and German Franzi van Almsick was also through in 55.57.
World champ Hanna-Maria Seppala from Finland just made the cut in 56.01 – the line for the semifinals was drawn here.
Women 100m Freestyle Heats
Record Split Name NOC Location Date
WR 53.66 25.81
LENTON Lisbeth AUS Sydney (AUS) 31 MAR 2004
OR 53.77 25.81
de BRUIJN Inge NED Sydney (AUS) 20 SEP 2000
Event No: 20
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m Time Time
Behind
1 5 4 de BRUIJN Inge NED 0.73 26.17 54.43
28.26
2 5 5 JOYCE Kara Lynn USA 0.71 26.71 54.53
27.82 0.10
3 7 5 COUGHLIN Natalie USA 0.69 26.55 54.82
28.27 0.39
4 7 4 LENTON Lisbeth AUS 0.77 26.46 54.89
28.43 0.46
5 6 3 METELLA Malia FRA 0.77 26.95 55.08
28.13 0.65
6 7 2 NIANGKOUARA Nery Mantey GRE 0.78 26.40 55.12
28.72 0.69
7 6 4 HENRY Jodie AUS 0.82 27.18 55.13
27.95 0.70
8 7 6 MORAVCOVA Martina SVK 0.73 26.72 55.17
28.45 0.74
9 7 3 PELLEGRINI Federica ITA 0.84 27.03 55.41
28.38 0.98
10 6 6 POPCHANKA Alena BLR 0.69 27.18 55.49
28.31 1.06
11 6 2 van ALMSICK Franziska GER 0.83 27.21 55.57
28.36 1.14
12 5 1 NAGAI Tomoko JPN 0.76 27.03 55.76
28.73 1.33
13 5 6 VELDHUIS Marleen NED 0.84 27.24 55.81
28.57 1.38
14 5 7 LILLHAGE Josefin SWE 0.81 27.09 55.87
28.78 1.44
15 4 6 SHCHERBA Hanna BLR 0.73 27.26 56.01
28.75 1.58
15 6 5 SEPPALA Hanna-Maria FIN 0.76 27.22 56.01
28.79 1.58
17 6 1 RYU Yoon-Ji KOR 0.81 27.11 56.02
28.91 1.59
18 4 3 OTTESEN Jeanette DEN 0.75 27.07 56.17
29.10 1.74
19 7 1 BARZYCKA Paulina POL 0.86 27.38 56.20
28.82 1.77
20 6 8 GUSMAO Rebeca BRA 0.70 27.42 56.26
28.84 1.83
21 4 1 FITCH Alison NZL 0.87 27.98 56.29
28.31 1.86
22 6 7 CHENG Jiaru CHN 0.78 27.24 56.39
29.15 1.96
23 7 8 MYSKOVA Jana CZE 0.87 27.18 56.59
29.41 2.16
24 5 2 SJOBERG Johanna SWE 0.89 26.95 56.66
29.71 2.23
24 7 7 XU Yanwei CHN 0.73 26.75 56.66
29.91 2.23
26 3 7 DIEZI Dominique SUI 0.77 27.27 56.67
29.40 2.24
26 4 2 ISAKOVIC Sara SLO 0.85 27.56 56.67
29.11 2.24
28 5 8 SZIGETI Florencia ARG 0.63 27.36 56.71
29.35 2.28
29 3 5 SEMECO Arlene VEN 0.77 27.24 57.04
29.80 2.61
30 4 8 COPARROPA ALEMAN Eileen Marie PAN 0.76 27.45 57.09
29.64 2.66
31 4 7 MUKOMOL Olga UKR 0.88 27.29 57.12
29.83 2.69
32 4 5 GOSTOMELSKY Anna ISR 0.74 27.61 57.15
29.54 2.72
33 3 6 DRAXLER Judith AUT 0.80 27.43 57.29
29.86 2.86
34 3 8 WILSON Hannah Jane Arnett HKG 0.76 27.44 57.33
29.89 2.90
35 2 2 GARCIA Vanessa PUR 0.72 26.99 57.38
30.39 2.95
36 3 3 HEINZ Lara LUX 0.86 27.77 57.40
29.63 2.97
37 4 4 KOLUKANOVA Jana EST 0.86 27.28 57.45
30.17 3.02
38 3 2 MUTINA Agnes HUN 0.68 28.18 58.10
29.92 3.67
39 3 1 CHUCK Angela JAM 0.68 28.23 58.33
30.10 3.90
40 3 4 RAGNARSDOTTIR Ragnheidur ISL 0.83 27.55 58.47
30.92 4.04
41 2 5 SKALINSKAYA Yelena KAZ 0.92 27.73 58.56
30.83 4.13
42 2 4 McEACHRANE Linda TRI 0.78 28.18 58.92
30.74 4.49
43 2 3 OZOLINA Agnese LAT 0.78 28.14 59.03
30.89 4.60
44 2 6 SUNG Yi Chieh TPE 0.95 28.75 59.18
30.43 4.75
45 2 7 SHLEMOVA Irina UZB 0.80 28.19 59.21
31.02 4.78
46 2 8 TANDON Shikha IND 0.82 28.31 59.70
31.39 5.27
47 2 1 COICA Nicoleta MDA 0.89 27.98 59.85
31.87 5.42
48 1 4 CERQUEDA Carolina AND 0.75 29.15 1:00.38
31.23 5.95
49 1 5 INANGORORE Larissa BDI 0.86 37.88 1:23.90
46.02 29.47
50 1 3 KOUSSIHOUEDE Gloria BEN 1.04 40.39 1:30.90
50.51 36.47
5 3 MARSHALL Melanie GBR DNS