Brendan Hansen set another world record at the US swim trials on Sunday, stealing some attention away from Michael Phelps.
Hansen won the 200m breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 9.04 seconds, beating the record of 2:09.42 set by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima at last year's world championships.
On Thursday, Hansen broke Kitajima's record in the 100m breaststroke.
"When I got in this pool for the first time, I definitely thought something special might happen here," Hansen said.
It did. The 22-year-old native of Havertown, Pennsylvania, became the first American since John Hencken in 1974 to hold the world record at both distances.
In other races, Jason Lezak won the 100m freestyle and gained the upper hand over rival Gary Hall Jr., who finished third. Hall still earned a trip to Athens on the relays, joining Gary Hall Sr. as the first father-son duo to make three Olympics apiece.
"I just qualified for my third Olympics and I'm really happy," Hall said. "I'd also like to start campaigning now for team captain."
In another testament to family ties, Kirk won the 200m butterfly to join older sister Tara on the US team. They are the sixth set of siblings to make the same team but the first sisters.
Ed Moses, who was America's dominant breaststroker at the Sydney Games, failed in his bid to return to the Olympics. Bothered by breathing problems, he struggled to a fourth-place showing, more than three seconds behind runner-up Scott Usher, who claimed the expected second spot on the team at 2:10.90.
"It's 100 percent disappointing," Moses said.
Then there's Hansen, the dominant college breaststroker over the last four years who peaked at just the right time. He even surprised his coach by eclipsing Kitajima's 200m record.
"We figured it would be two or three years down the line before anyone broke it," said Eddie Reese, who coached Hansen at Texas and will be part of the US staff in Athens. "The only way he could break it was to go out as fast as he went out. The 100m speed gave him the confidence to push his 200m out."
Hall made his third Olympic team in Long Beach, just as father did 28 years ago. At those trials, the elder Hall held up his son -- not yet 2 years old -- in the pool after qualifying for the Montreal Games.
``I have no recollection of that,'' Hall Jr. quipped.
But Lezak got the last laugh in this pool, a temporary outdoor structure set up at the Long Beach harbor. He went out strong -- under world-record pace at the turn -- and held on to win at 48.41.
Ian Crocker, who holds the world record in the 100m butterfly, earned the second individual spot at 49.06.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
RSS