By Stephen J. Thomas
ATHENS, August 18. THE shinning light of Polish swimming, 20-year-old Otylia Jedrzejczak, saw the light tonight and the color was gold!
Three-time Olympian Aussie Petria Thomas had medaled in this race on both previous occasions; silver in Atlanta and bronze in Sydney. This was her last chance to complete the set! The 28-year-old from Canberra went hard from the start, very hard (and in hindsight perhaps, too hard) challenging her younger rival to try and catch her.
Thomas was 0.60 seconds under world pace at the 50m, 0.61 seconds under at the 100m but just 0.09 seconds under at the 150m. But the Polish world record-holder was coming home faster and the momentum was with her.
Jedrzejczak got to Thomas under the flags to touch in 2:06.05 and record a famous victory for Poland. Thomas finished in 2:06.36 while Japan’s Yuko Nakanishi out-dueled American Kaitlin Sandeno, finishing just 0.14 of a second faster in 2:08.04 to take the bronze.
Jedrzejczak said of her win, "it was great to win a medal, more important than a gold medal."
Thomas felt she gave the race her all and had no regrets while Nakanishi was very emotional about her medal. "I can't believe it, I knew I had to work hard in the final fifty and I just gave it my best," she said.
Women 200m Butterfly Finals
Final
Record Splits Name NOC Location Date
WR 2:05.78 28.79 1:00.79 1:33.14 JEDRZEJCZAK Otylia POL Berlin (GER) 04 AUG 2002
OR 2:05.88 28.38 59.91 1:32.44 HYMAN Misty USA Sydney (AUS) 20 SEP 2000
Event No: 17
Rank Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m 100m 150m Time Time
Behind
1 3 JEDRZEJCZAK Otylia POL 0.80 (2) 28.76 (2) 1:01.09
32.33 (2) 1:33.17
32.08 2:06.05
32.88
2 6 THOMAS Petria AUS 0.74 (1) 28.19 (1) 1:00.18
31.99 (1) 1:33.05
32.87 2:06.36
33.31 0.31
3 5 NAKANISHI Yuko JPN 0.72 (4) 29.14 (4) 1:01.79
32.65 (3) 1:35.10
33.31 2:08.04
32.94 1.99
4 4 SANDENO Kaitlin USA 0.78 (5) 29.32 (3) 1:01.72
32.40 (5) 1:35.36
33.64 2:08.18
32.82 2.13
5 2 GALVEZ Felicity AUS 0.90 (3) 29.09 (5) 1:01.88
32.79 (4) 1:35.20
33.32 2:09.28
34.08 3.23
6 8 JACOBSEN Mette DEN 0.91 (6) 29.50 (7) 1:02.16
32.66 (6) 1:35.97
33.81 2:10.01
34.04 3.96
7 1 CAVALLINO Paola ITA 0.85 (8) 29.90 (8) 1:02.64
32.74 (8) 1:36.24
33.60 2:10.14
33.90 4.09
8 7 RISZTOV Eva HUN 0.82 (7) 29.59 (6) 1:02.13
32.54 (7) 1:36.07
33.94 2:10.58
34.51 4.53