Perkins shows cracking form in 1,500m heats

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Sydney: Kieren Perkins made a stunning start to his bid for an historic third successive Olympic 1,500 metres freestyle title on Friday and even upstaged double gold medallist Inge de Bruijn.

Perkins, who so nearly failed to qualify for the 1996 final, made no mistake this time, breaking the 15-minute barrier for the first time since his triumph at the Atlanta Games.

The 27-year-old Australian, who has not won a major race since the 1996 Games, forged to victory in his heat in 14 minutes 58.34 seconds, nearly seven seconds quicker than second-fastest overall qualifier Erik Vendt of the United States and more than nine seconds faster than Australian world champion Grant Hackett.

"I'm very, very happy," said Perkins, who is bidding to become the first male swimmer to win the same individual Olympic title at three successive Olympics.

De Bruijn, who has broken two world records and won two Olympic titles this week, headed remorselessly towards a golden treble when she posted far and away the fastest time in the women's 50 metres freestyle heats.

The 27-year-old Dutchwoman won the final heat in 24.46 seconds, eclipsing the 24.79 Olympic record established by China's Yang Wenyi at the 1992 Barcelona Games and falling a mere 0.07 seconds shy of her own 24.39 world record.

The nearest anyone else could get to De Bruijn was the 24.96 of American Dara Torres, the 100 freestyle joint bronze medallist who finished half a second adrift and was the only other woman to beat 25 seconds.

American world and defending Olympic champion Amy van Dyken, a distant second in De Bruijn's heat, clocked the third-fastest overall time of 25.04 among the 16 qualifiers for the evening's semifinals.

De Bruijn broke her own world record in Sunday's 100 butterfly final and accomplished a similar feat in the semi-finals of the 100 freestyle on her way to winning Thursday's final.

Cracking pace from Perkins

Perkins took his 1,500 metres heat out at a cracking pace and was more than a second clear of European champion Igor Chervinskiy at the first 100 metres.

Sweeping away with all the confidence and style of old, the Australian was a whole length ahead of two back-markers with 200 metres to go and charged on to finish nearly half a length ahead of his closest rivals.

Alexei Filopets of Russia was second in the heat, more than 12 seconds behind in 15:10.94. Chervinskiy finished third in 15:12.30, which turned out to be just enough to take the eighth and final place in Saturday's final.

Vendt, who became the first American to break the 15-minute barrier at the US Olympic trials in Indianapolis in August, won the next heat comfortably in 15:05.11.

Hackett, who took over from Perkins as world champion in 1998, prevailed in a three-way race in the final heat with Ryk Neethling of South Africa and Dragos Coman of Romania, winning in 15:07.50.

"I'm back in form again. It was a good time. I just wanted to go under 15:10," Hackett said. "I didn't want to do a swim that was going to take it all out for me."

As for Perkins's performance, Hackett said, "He's gone under 15 minutes for the first time in a while. Right now he's the favourite, he's the one to beat.



(c) Reuters Limited.