By Stephen J. Thomas
ATHENS, Greece August 19. REIGNING Olympic champion Gary Hall, Jr., did his talking in the pool this morning. When he finished having his say, the 29 year-old sprint legend found himself sitting on top of the list of sixteen qualifiers by a huge two-tenths of a second.
Fired-up after having been dropped from the 400 free relay team for the final on the second night of competition, he led a class field of sprinters into the evening round.
Two class swimmers who won't be there — and a great disappointment to most, are world record-holder and two-time Olympic gold medalist in this event, 31-year-old Russian Alexander Popov (22.58), and Dutch dual 100 meter Olympic gold medalist, Pieter van den Hoogenband (22.56).
For the soon-to-turn 32-year-old Popov, it's a great pity he did not at least mount the blocks for the final tomorrow night.
Other highly-ranked guys to miss the cut were; Italy's Vismara, Spain's Lorente and the Aussie Ashley Callus.
It took a very fast 22.53 or better to make the evening round!
Under 22.40 were: Frenchmen Fred Bousquet 22.24 and Julien Sicot 22.30, Sydney finalist Bart Kizierowski 22.26, Algerian Salim Iles 22.26, Croatian Duje Draganja 22.28 and American Jason Lezak 22.33
The South African silver medalist in the 100, Roland Schoeman (22.41) and teammate Lyndon Ferns (22.53) were through, Ferns in 16th place. Aussie champ Brett Hawke (22.42), Swede Stefan Nystrand (22.42), Spain's Javier Noriega (22.52) will be there too, as will veteran Latin American sprinters Ricardo Busquets (22.45) and Fernando Scherer (22.52).
Men 50m Freestyle Heats
Record Name NOC Location Date
WR 21.64 POPOV Alexander RUS Moscow (RUS) 16 JUN 2000
OR 21.91 POPOV Alexander RUS Barcelona (ESP) 30 JUL 1992
Event No: 25
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. Time Time
Behind
1 11 4 HALL Gary USA 0.72 22.04
2 10 8 BOUSQUET Frederick FRA 0.73 22.24
0.20
3 9 3 KIZIEROWSKI Bartosz POL 0.71 22.26
0.22
3 11 8 ILES Salim ALG 0.66 22.26
0.22
5 8 5 DRAGANJA Duje CRO 0.72 22.28
0.24
6 9 6 SICOT Julien FRA 0.80 22.30
0.26
7 9 4 LEZAK Jason USA 0.70 22.33
0.29
8 11 5 SCHOEMAN Roland Mark RSA 0.63 22.41
0.37
8 11 2 VOLYNETS Oleksandr UKR 0.84 22.41
0.37
10 9 2 HAWKE Brett AUS 0.73 22.42
0.38
10 11 1 NYSTRAND Stefan SWE 0.70 22.42
0.38
12 8 4 BUSQUETS Ricardo PUR 0.66 22.45
0.41
13 8 2 NOVY Karel SUI 0.84 22.51
0.47
14 9 5 NORIEGA Javier ESP 0.78 22.52
0.48
14 10 7 SCHERER Fernando BRA 0.74 22.52
0.48
16 11 6 FERNS Lyndon RSA 0.72 22.53
0.49
17 11 3 van den HOOGENBAND Pieter NED 0.74 22.56
0.52
18 8 6 EL MASRI Rafed Ziad SYR 0.83 22.58
0.54
18 10 3 KENKHUIS Johan NED 0.78 22.58
0.54
18 10 4 POPOV Alexander RUS 0.88 22.58
0.54
21 7 1 GIMBUTIS Rolandas LTU 0.69 22.59
0.55
22 10 2 VISMARA Lorenzo ITA 0.81 22.70
0.66
23 10 5 LORENTE Eduard ESP 0.80 22.71
0.67
24 7 3 TSAGKARAKIS Apostolos GRE 0.76 22.72
0.68
25 9 1 SCARICA Michele ITA 0.79 22.80
0.76
26 11 7 CALLUS Ashley AUS 0.69 22.82
0.78
27 9 7 MEOLANS Jose Martin ARG 0.79 22.90
0.86
28 10 6 SHYRSHOV Vyacheslav UKR 0.84 22.96
0.92
29 9 8 KAPRALOV Andrey RUS 0.76 22.97
0.93
30 10 1 ROSE Matt CAN 0.69 23.01
0.97
31 7 6 CAVIC Milorad SCG 0.78 23.05
1.01
32 6 2 TAKACS Krisztian HUN 0.79 23.12
1.08
33 6 1 NEVIAROUSKI Stanislau BLR 0.76 23.13
1.09
34 8 7 HERNANDEZ Marcos CUB 0.70 23.19
1.15
35 7 2 LEE Chung-Hee KOR 0.74 23.20
1.16
36 5 7 NACHAEV Ravil UZB 0.81 23.23
1.19
36 7 7 BECERRA Camilo COL 0.70 23.23
1.19
36 7 4 SILVA Pedro POR 0.71 23.23
1.19
39 6 8 TAYLA Kaan TUR 0.78 23.26
1.22
40 5 4 PROBERT Carl FIJ 0.78 23.31
1.27
41 7 5 HARD Jere FIN 0.78 23.33
1.29
42 7 8 CHEN Zuo CHN 0.74 23.41
1.37
43 5 6 LABAN Josh ISV 0.68 23.43
1.39
43 6 3 SANTOS Julio ECU 0.76 23.43
1.39
45 6 4 PAPACHRYSANTHOU Chrysanthos CYP 0.78 23.51
1.47
46 5 1 ONG Allen MAS 0.64 23.52
1.48
46 6 6 CHINNAPASAEN Arwut THA 0.73 23.52
1.48
48 6 7 WANG Shao An TPE 0.84 23.54
1.50
49 6 5 HAUSTOV Danil EST 0.69 23.56
1.52
50 4 4 MAFIO Jose URU 0.69 23.58
1.54
51 4 5 ATKINSON Jevon JAM 0.75 23.61
1.57
52 5 2 ANTONOV Raichin BUL 0.78 23.67
1.63
53 4 6 DIAZ Rodrigo GUA 0.76 23.69
1.65
54 5 5 ARNARSON Orn ISL 0.84 23.84
1.80
55 5 8 SHTEINIKOV Oleg KAZ 0.67 23.88
1.84
56 4 3 HAYNES Terrence BAR 0.73 23.90
1.86
57 4 8 KAAKI Abed Rahman LIB 0.68 24.68
2.64
58 4 2 ARKHURST Gregory CIV 0.73 24.82
2.78
58 4 7 PRUDENCIO Mauricio BOL 0.82 24.82
2.78
60 4 1 DANSOU Alois BEN 0.76 24.86
2.82
61 1 4 BAKALE Rony CGO 0.97 25.07
3.03
62 3 5 HACKEL Chris MRI 0.84 25.33
3.29
63 1 3 JEWEL Ahmed Md BAN 0.82 25.47
3.43
64 3 4 SHADE SULE Cole CMR 0.82 26.16
4.12
65 3 3 STEELE Johnathan GRN 0.74 26.40
4.36
66 3 6 GJATA Kreshnik ALB 0.93 26.61
4.57
66 5 3 DANILOV Semen KGZ 0.81 26.61
4.57
68 2 4 BONABART Anderson FSM 0.80 26.75
4.71
69 1 2 MALIKI Ibrahim NIG 0.94 26.81
4.77
70 3 8 HEM Kiri CAM 0.89 27.49
5.45
71 3 2 GHEZZAWI Khaled LBA 0.86 27.55
5.51
72 2 3 HOJAMAMEDOV Hojamamed TKM 0.80 27.68
5.64
73 3 1 MUBAH Hassan MDV 0.99 27.71
5.67
74 1 7 DEFREITAS Donnie VIN 0.72 27.72
5.68
75 3 7 LUBERENGA Edgar UGA 0.80 27.77
5.73
76 1 5 DIAWARA Abdourahamane GUI 1.02 28.10
6.06
77 2 5 VONGPHACHANH Bounthanom LAO 0.79 28.17
6.13
78 2 7 SEKAMANA Leonce RWA 0.73 28.99
6.95
79 1 6 KEITA David MLI 0.88 29.96
7.92
80 2 2 SAAD Mohammed YEM 0.91 29.97
7.93
81 2 6 OUEDRAOGO Mamadou BUR 0.96 30.36
8.32
82 2 8 WILLIAMS Malique ANT 0.79 32.86
10.82
83 2 1 WALESI Yona MAW 0.95 34.11
12.07
8 1 ROJAS Luis VEN DNS
8 3 MANKOC Peter SLO DNS
8 8 BOVELL George TRI DNS
