Peirsol’s gold rush complete
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Aaron Peirsol claimed his third gold medal in as many tries to
complete his swimming competition at the Olympics Saturday in Athens,
Greece.
The Newport Harbor High alum swam the 100-meter backstroke leg to
help Team USA break the world record in the men’s 400 medley relay
Saturday. Peirsol opened the relay with a world record of his own,
clocking 53.45 seconds.
Team USA finished in 3:30.68.
Peirsol won his gold in Athens in the 100 back with a time of
54.06. Lenny Krazelburg set an Olympic record in the 100 back at
Sydney, Australia in 2000 in 53.72, and he set the world record of
53.60 the year before, also in Sydney.
Peirsol earned his second Athens gold in the 200 back. His time of
1:54.95 broke the Olympic record of 1:55.14 he set the night before
in the semifinals. He became only the fifth swimmer in history to win
both the 100 and 200 back events in the same Olympics.
* In other Olympic action:
Taylor Dent lost to Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 4-6, 6-2, 14-16,
in the bronze medal match of the men’s tennis tournament. The match
took three hours and 25 minutes to complete, the longest three-set
singles match in Olympic history.
Dent, a Corona del Mar High product, battled back from a 3-5 match
point opportunity for Gonzalez to tie the third set at 5-5. The
former Sea King had a match-point chance of his own, serving at
14-13, but Gonzalez ended up winning the final three games to give
his country its first medal of the Athens Games.
Misty May and Kerri Walsh beat Jia Tian and Fei Wang of China,
21-11, 21-18, to advance to the quarterfinals of women’s beach
volleyball. May, a Newport Harbor alum and Dent’s cousin, had 15 digs
in the match to help her team advance to the quarterfinals.
May-Walsh, who have not lost a game in four matches, will face
Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin of Canada today at 10 a.m. Pacific
time.
Newport Beach resident Peter Wells remained in 25th place
following two races Saturday in men’s windsurfing. The former UC
Irvine All-American sailor finished 27th and 24th, respectively, in
the two races to give him 154 points through eight races with three
remaining.
Lanee Butler-Beashel, another UCI product, moved up one spot to
16th overall in women’s windsurfing. She finished sixth and 14th,
respectively, in her two races Saturday, giving her 88 points through
eight races with three more to go.
The USA men’s water polo team, including five UCI products, lost
to Russia, 9-7, Saturday, dropping the Americans to fourth in Pool A
with one game remaining. USA (2-2) needs to beat powerhouse Serbia
and Montenegro (3-1) 11 a.m. Monday in order to advance to the
quarterfinals.
Russia jumped on the board early, getting a score 20 seconds into
the game from Revaz Tchomakhidze 20. Team USA went the other way to
earn a six-on-five opportunity, but former UCI standout Omar Amr’s
catch-and-shoot from four meters hit the crossbar and was controlled
by Russian goalie Nikolay Maksimov.
With Russia leading, 3-0, UCI product Jeff Powers drew an
exclusion on a counterattack to set up an extra-man score from six
meters by Tony Azevedo.
Powers earned another exclusion to set up a goal that pulled the
Americans within 5-3.
UCI product Ryan Bailey’s lone shot was saved by Maksimov, while
former Anteater Dan Klatt had one foul and one steal.
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