Jour 3

4 records du monde ce soir à Melbourne

Coughlin au 100 Dos
Phelps au 200 NL
Piersol au 100 Dos
Pellegrini au 200 NL

2 records de France pour Manaudou
au 100 Dos et au 200 NL

et europe pour laure en dos!

Infos de la Fédé

Citation :

Melbourne 07 : l'argent et le record d'Europe du 100 m dos pour Laure MANAUDOU - La panoplie des trois métaux pour les bleus est au complet avec l'obtention par Laure MANAUDOU de la médaille d'argent au 100 m dos en 59.87, nouveau record d'Europe en prime. Par contre, son pari d'enchaîner avec le 1500 m pour un podium n'a pu être tenu car elle a terminé huitième en 16.42.17. Remise de ses émotions, elle a ensuite livré bataille dans sa demi-finale du 200 NL ou elle a trouvé les ressources pour améliorer le record de France (1:57.30), soit le cinquième temps de la finale de demain après-midi. En demi-finale du 50 brasse, Hugues DUBOSCQ, 12e, a été recalé pour la finale

Et pour les plus courageux

Citation :

12th FINA World Chamionships 2007 - Melbourne (AUS)

WORLD RECORD SPREE IN POOL

Michael Phelps triggered an explosion of four world records on one of the most remarkable picturenights in the history of the world swimming championships. Phelps and fellow Americans Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol cracked the first three world marks as the U.S. hoisted their title tally in the pool to four on the night and seven in three days. Italy’s Federica Pellegrini made sure it was not an exclusive USA celebration by adding a fourth world record in the women’s 200 metres semi-finals. All four records fell inside 90 minutes on a night of frantic action at the Susie O’Neill pool on Tuesday. Phelps stung Australian pride by dispossessing their abdicated hero Ian Thorpe of the 200 freestyle world mark, while Coughlin and Peirsol both lowered 100 metres backstroke records they each held. Kate Ziegler came tantalisingly close to claiming another world record for the Americans in the women’s 1500 metres freestyle, while Australia’s Leisel Jones foiled a U.S. title sweep by winning the 100 metres breaststroke.

Phelps, who won a 4x100 metres freestyle relay gold on Sunday, claimed the seventh individual world title of his career in the most spectacular fashion. The 21-year-old American seized the initiative from the start in what looked set to be a tremendous duel with 2000 Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband. Phelps led by just 0.17 seconds at the 100-metre mark, with both well inside world record schedule, but began to pull away from the 29-year-old Dutchman on the third length and really turned on the power out of the turn on the final 50 metres. Phelps forged clear and hit the wall in one minute 43.86 seconds, 0.20 seconds inside the world mark set by Thorpe at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka and more than two seconds ahead of the Dutchman. Van den Hoogenband took the silver in 1:46.28 and fast-finishing Park Tae Hwan, who became South Korea’s first-ever world champion when he won the 400 metres freestyle final on Sunday, added a bronze in 1:46.73. Thorpe led Van den Hoogenband and Phelps home in the 200 metres freestyle final at the 2004 Athens Olympics, a confrontation billed as the Race of the Century. The Australian made a repeat showdown impossible when he announced his retirement last November but Phelps, relatively new to the 200 freestyle in Athens, proved emphatically that he has come a long way in the event in the last two years and Thorpe at his best would have found it hard to live with him on Tuesday. Thorpe, having relinquished his swimming realm, has now lost a world record which had stood for nearly six years and Phelps has joined another Australian, Grant Hackett, as the swimmer with the most individual world titles. Van den Hoogenband, three times an Olympic champion, was once again denied his first world title. He took his individual medal tally at world championships to six silvers and two bronzes, including three silvers and a bronze in the 200 freestyle.

That prodigious performance by Phelps looked an impossible act to follow but Coughlin kept the excitement pumping with a superb swim in the women’s 100 metres backstroke final. Coughlin, bronze medallist in Monday’s 100 metres butterfly, went off at a cracking pace and was 0.56 seconds inside world record schedule at the turn in the 50-metre pool. Laure Manaudou of France, winner of Sunday’s 400 metres freestyle, chased the American down the return length but Coughlin, who was touched out by Australians Libby Lenton and Jessicah Schipper in the 100 butterfly, resisted the challenge this time. Coughlin, the Olympic 100 backstroke champion, came home in 59.44 to better the 59.58 world mark she set in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 13, 2002. Manaudou, the Olympic 100 backstroke bronze medallist, took the silver in 59.87, becoming only the second woman to swim the event inside a minute. Japan’s Reiko Nakamura, 200 backstroke bronze medallist at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 worlds, took the bronze 1:00.40.

A third U.S. world record looked on the cards in the next final when Ziegler took the women’s 1500 metres freestyle out at a ferocious pace. Ziegler, the defending champion, hurtled along inside world record pace for 1,000 metres of the 30-length race, scattering the rest of the field behind her. But the effort took its toll and, as the American dropped off world record schedule, Switzerland’s Flavia Rigamonti began to reel her in. But Ziegler withstood the challenge and won in a championship record 15:53.05, the second-fastest time ever behind the 15:52.10 world mark set by fellow American Janet Evans back in 1988. Rigamonti, world silver medallist in 2001 and 2005, made it a silver treble in 15:55.38 and Japan’s Ai Shibata, bronze medallist in Sunday’s 400 freestyle, gained another bronze in 15:58.55. Manaudou, back in the water about half an hour after the 100 backstroke final, was never in the hunt and finished eighth and last in 16:42.17.

Double Olympic champion Peirsol resumed U.S. world record duty in the men’s 100 metres backstroke final, coming through from third place at the turn, to touch in 52.98, becoming the first swimmer to dip below 53 seconds and beating the 53.17 world standard he set in Indianapolis on April 2, 2005. Peirsol, three world 200 backstroke titles already in his possession, made it three world 100 backstroke golds in succession. Fellow American Ryan Lochte twice a bronze medallist at the 2005 worlds, claimed the silver in 53.50 and Commonwealth champion Liam Tancock put Britain on the medal map with a bronze in 53.61.

Incredibly, the record-breaking was not over. Pellegrini, silver medallist at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 worlds, produced a compelling turn of finishing speed to win the second women’s 200 metres freestyle semi-final in 1:56.47 and, to her surprise and delight, join the ranks of the world record-breakers. Her time beat the 1:56.64 world mark set by former world champion Franziska van Almsick at the European championships in Berlin on August 3, 2002. Manaudou, a glutton for work, made her third appearance of the evening and managed to qualify for the 200 freestyle final with the fifth-fastest overall semi-final time.

Australia’s Leisel Jones made sure the United States did not sweep all the evening’s gold medals, retaining her 100 metres breaststroke title in a duel with American Tara Kirk. Jones led at the turn in 30.70, inside world record schedule and with Kirk just behind. The Australian, so often a silver and bronze medallist at global level until she twice struck gold at the 2005 worlds, swept on to win in 1:05.72, outside her own 1:05.09 world record but inside the championship mark of 1:06.20 set by American Jessica Hardy in 2005. Kirk, bronze medallist in 2005, took the silver in 1:06.34 and Ukraine’s European champion Anna Khlistunova the bronze in 1:07.27.