By Stephen J. Thomas
ATHENS, Greece August 17. IN a huge shock, American Jason Lezak, ranked fastest globally this year in the 100m free with his 48.17 from the US Trials, finished fifth in his heat in 49.87 (21st fastest) while teammate Ian Crocker who has been off his game with a virus these past few days was sixth in his heat in 49.70 (17th fastest).
World record-holder Pieter van den Hoogenband is looking very good with the fastest time of the morning, 48.70. Two other swimmers went under 49-seconds: Arizona-based South African, Ryk Neethling, continuing his good form, clocked 48.85 equal with Lithuanian Rolandas Gimbutis.
The 6' 10" Gimbutis, who is based at Cal Berkeley and trains with Mike Bottom and Nort Thornton, weighs in at 243lbs and became the 19th member of the under 49-second sprint club! On th eway he split 23.19.
Another Mike Bottom trained import, Croatian Duje Draganja was also right in the mix clocking an impressive PR 49.07. French sprint star Fred Bousquet was a fingernail behind in a national record 49.08 and the Thorpedo scrubbed up well after his famous victory last night with a sharp 49.17.
Another Frenchman Romain Barnier was also in the groove splashing 49.49.
Then came the two Russians; The Tsar of the pool, Alex Popov, who will be shooting for his fourth consecutive medal in this event, cruised to 49.51 with Andrey Kapralov in 49.52.
The Croatian speedster Peter Mankoc went 49.54 and Italian Filippo Magnini 49.58.
South African 400 relay hero Roland Schoeman was quick off the blocks but came home in 49.68 to qualify 13th, well off his 48.38 heat swim and 48.17 from his lead in the relay final.
Salim Iles was last man to make the semis, the line drawn at 49.72.
men 100m Freestyle Heats
Record Split Name NOC Location Date
WR 47.84 23.16
V.D. HOOGENBAND Pieter NED Sydney (AUS) 19 SEP 2000
OR 47.84 23.16
V.D. HOOGENBAND Pieter NED Sydney (AUS) 19 SEP 2000
Event No: 16
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m Time Time
Behind
1 7 4 van den HOOGENBAND Pieter NED 0.78 23.64 48.70
25.06
2 5 4 GIMBUTIS Rolandas LTU 0.72 23.19 48.85
25.66 0.15
2 7 5 NEETHLING Ryk RSA 0.74 23.55 48.85
25.30 0.15
4 6 1 DRAGANJA Duje CRO 0.77 23.14 49.07
25.93 0.37
5 7 2 BOUSQUET Frederick FRA 0.77 23.51 49.08
25.57 0.38
6 8 5 THORPE Ian AUS 0.89 24.26 49.17
24.91 0.47
7 9 1 BARNIER Romain FRA 0.71 23.69 49.49
25.80 0.79
8 9 5 POPOV Alexander RUS 0.86 23.83 49.51
25.68 0.81
9 8 3 KAPRALOV Andrey RUS 0.76 24.09 49.52
25.43 0.82
10 7 7 MANKOC Peter SLO 0.80 23.49 49.54
26.05 0.84
11 9 3 MAGNINI Filippo ITA 0.72 24.50 49.58
25.08 0.88
12 8 8 BOVELL George TRI 0.84 23.72 49.61
25.89 0.91
13 8 4 SCHOEMAN Roland Mark RSA 0.60 23.77 49.68
25.91 0.98
14 6 2 ROJAS Luis VEN 0.64 23.76 49.69
25.93 0.99
15 7 1 SPANNEBERG Torsten GER 0.83 23.86 49.71
25.85 1.01
16 9 2 ILES Salim ALG 0.68 23.21 49.72
26.51 1.02
17 6 6 YEGOSHIN Yuriy UKR 0.87 23.83 49.73
25.90 1.03
17 7 3 CROCKER Ian USA 0.76 23.80 49.73
25.93 1.03
19 8 1 CAVIC Milorad SCG 0.76 23.32 49.74
26.42 1.04
20 6 8 NYSTRAND Stefan SWE 0.74 23.70 49.75
26.05 1.05
21 9 4 LEZAK Jason USA 0.69 23.70 49.87
26.17 1.17
22 6 4 NOVY Karel SUI 0.87 23.76 49.93
26.17 1.23
23 6 5 KIDD Matthew GBR 0.70 23.77 49.97
26.20 1.27
24 9 7 MEOLANS Jose Martin ARG 0.76 23.60 49.98
26.38 1.28
25 8 2 VISMARA Lorenzo ITA 0.82 24.05 50.03
25.98 1.33
26 9 8 VENANCIO Tiago POR 0.72 23.57 50.18
26.61 1.48
27 5 8 OKUMURA Yoshihiro JPN 0.70 24.78 50.24
25.46 1.54
28 6 3 ZUBOR Attila HUN 0.84 24.12 50.26
26.14 1.56
29 5 6 NEVIAROUSKI Stanislau BLR 0.78 24.32 50.36
26.04 1.66
30 8 7 LORENTE Eduard ESP 0.77 23.97 50.48
26.51 1.78
31 8 6 CALLUS Ashley AUS 0.77 24.26 50.56
26.30 1.86
32 5 5 GRIGORIADIS Aristeidis GRE 0.90 24.44 50.61
26.17 1.91
33 5 2 RAJAKYLA Matti FIN 0.73 24.14 50.67
26.53 1.97
33 6 7 SOUZA Jader BRA 0.75 23.66 50.67
27.01 1.97
35 4 6 MILOSLAVSKIS Romans LAT 0.89 24.84 50.94
26.10 2.24
36 9 6 KUNZELMANN Stephan GER 0.80 24.03 50.98
26.95 2.28
37 5 3 HAUSTOV Danil EST 0.80 24.27 51.02
26.75 2.32
38 4 2 ARESTI Alexandros CYP 0.81 24.67 51.10
26.43 2.40
39 4 5 PINI Ryan PNG 0.80 24.63 51.11
26.48 2.41
40 3 3 PROBERT Carl FIJ 0.80 24.32 51.42
27.10 2.72
41 4 3 KUTSCHER Paul URU 0.74 24.47 51.45
26.98 2.75
42 4 4 TAYLA Kaan TUR 0.83 24.52 51.52
27.00 2.82
43 5 1 GIBSON Cameron NZL 0.74 24.50 51.56
27.06 2.86
44 4 1 GLEASON George ISV 0.81 24.40 51.69
27.29 2.99
45 3 4 LEE Chung-Hee KOR 0.80 24.92 51.74
26.82 3.04
45 3 1 ORTIZ Ismael PAN 0.77 24.79 51.74
26.95 3.04
47 2 3 GUTU Octavian MDA 0.87 24.71 51.84
27.13 3.14
48 3 5 ALLEYNE Damian BAR 0.72 25.00 51.89
26.89 3.19
49 3 6 SCHNETTLER Maximiliano CHI 0.77 25.07 51.91
26.84 3.21
50 4 7 ONG Allen MAS 0.63 24.77 52.04
27.27 3.34
51 3 2 TITARENKO Vyacheslav KAZ 0.72 24.89 52.09
27.20 3.39
52 4 8 ANTONOV Raichin BUL 0.81 24.76 52.33
27.57 3.63
53 2 5 BECERRA Camilo COL 0.70 24.56 52.57
28.01 3.87
54 3 8 WU Nien Pin TPE 0.66 25.29 52.58
27.29 3.88
55 2 6 PANIC Zeljko BIH 0.85 24.99 52.75
27.76 4.05
56 3 7 CHAY Mark SIN 0.73 25.08 52.83
27.75 4.13
57 2 4 AGAFANOV Alexandr UZB 0.79 25.11 52.92
27.81 4.22
58 2 1 AL JASSIMI Obaid Ahmed Obaid UAE 0.84 26.08 54.17
28.09 5.47
59 2 7 THOM Onan Orlando GUY 0.82 26.19 55.24
29.05 6.54
60 5 7 HUANG Shaohua CHN 0.79 27.22 55.46
28.24 6.76
61 2 2 FARHOUDI Babak IRI 0.81 27.32 56.42
29.10 7.72
62 2 8 RAVERA Jean Laurent MON 0.85 26.88 56.47
29.59 7.77
63 1 2 ABBAS Mohammed IRQ 0.76 27.41 56.81
29.40 8.11
64 1 6 ANDREY Tamir MGL 0.79 27.57 57.29
29.72 8.59
65 1 7 MATONSE Leonel MOZ 0.70 27.35 57.79
30.44 9.09
66 1 4 SHEHAB Hesham BRN 0.72 27.56 57.94
30.38 9.24
67 1 3 DYACHKOV Sergey AZE 0.81 28.12 58.26
30.14 9.56
68 1 5 AHMED Mumtaz PAK 0.91 28.67 59.19
30.52 10.49
69 1 1 NZIYUNVIRA Emery BDI 0.97 32.30 1:09.40
37.10 20.70
7 6 HAYDEN Brent CAN DNS
7 8 SAY Rick CAN DNS