GIBSON MISSES CHANCE TO DEFEND WORLD TITLE
World Champion James Gibson will be unable to defend his
50m Breaststroke title in Montreal after he failed to make
it through tonight’s semi-finals.
The Loughborough swimmers’ performance was one of stark
contrast to his morning heat, which saw him qualify for the
semi-finals as second fastest, and instead of building on
such a promising start he crashed out.
British Swimming’s consolation is they will have one
man in the final as Chris Cook (City of Newcastle) continues
what has been a hugely impressive meet.
In the heats Gibson won his race in 27.73 while Cook could
only manage a sixth place with 28.06 to squeeze though in
14th place.
However, this form was reversed in the first semi-final with
Cook setting his third personal best time of the World Championships
to win in 27.91 from lane one while Gibson finished a lowly
seventh in 28.18. Cook goes tomorrow night as fifth fastest
in the final.
For Gibson the dream of defending his title was over and he
was left bitterly disappointed with himself.
“I’m totally gutted,” said Gibson. “I
forced it all the way down the pool. I wasn’t relaxed,
I just muscled up and my stroke rate fell apart. It didn’t
flow and I couldn’t get that rhythm going.
“There’s really no excuse for swimming half-a-second
slower in the evening and I’m confident the time I did
this morning is going to be up there competing for a medal
tomorrow.
“It’s going to be hard to watch the final from
the stands knowing that I should be out there but I’ve
only got myself to blame as I messed it up.”
Cook was delighted with his swim and continues to rise through
the world rankings within men’s breaststroke.
“I really enjoyed that. This morning was a bit off but
that was a major improvement and another lifetime best for
me,” said Cook.
“I was just pleased to get through the heats as I didn’t
feel great following the final of the 100m the night before.
But that felt great and I hope I can go well in the final.”
Britain’s only finalist on day three of the Montreal
championships was Rebecca Cooke (City of Glasgow) in the Women’s
1500m but she couldn’t replicate the type of swim that
saw her qualify fastest for the final.
>From the outset Cooke struggled to keep up with the pace
and gradually
dropped out of contention. At the half-way mark she was well
down on the leaders and eventually finished in a very disappointing
7th place.
“I really don’t know what went wrong there,”
said Cook. “I honestly have no answer. Perhaps I was
a little bit tense but clearly something wasn’t quite
right and I need to analyse this before the 800m Freestyle
on Friday.”
Gold went to Kate Ziegler of the U.S. who lead from the outset
to win in 16:00.41, Flavia Rigamonti took the silver in 16:04.34
and Brittany Reimer was third in 16:07.73. Cooke touched in
16:23.25 nearly eight seconds off her qualifying time.
Loughborough’s Mel Marshall looked solid in the semi-final
of the Women’ 200m Freestyle when she qualified in fourth
spot for tomorrow’s final.
Drawn in the second and fastest semi-final she finished fourth
in 1:58.86 after she controlled the race from a good start.
At 150m she eased off slightly to save herself for the main
event.
“It’s all about racing and I’m happy with
that,” said Marshall. “I’ve had a pretty
emotional day, I was a bit stressed about this morning as
I didn’t swim as well as I’d have liked but tonight
I just did my thing.
“I’m going to have a real go tomorrow and see
what it brings me. I needed to make this final after the disappointment
of Athens and I’m not going to miss the opportunity
of doing myself justice.”
City of Cardiff’s David Davies will race in tomorrow’s
final of the 800m Freestyle after he qualified fourth fastest
with a new lifetime best of 7:51.92. Grant Hackett of Australia
will be the man to beat, however, after qualifying fastest
in 7:47.62.
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