Bruijn stamps class, swimming comes to a close

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn cemented her title as the world's quickest woman with her third Olympic gold medal on Saturday and the United States set two relay records.

An eventful afternoon at the pool brought the final tally of historic swims to an astonishing 15. De Bruijn added the 50 metres freestyle to her 100 butterfly and freestyle golds when she touched the wall in 24.32 seconds.

The Dutch phenomenon finished the competition with three world records in the 50 and 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly. The American women's 4 X 100 medley squad of Barbara Bedford, Megan Quann, Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres then smashed the world record, clocking 3:58.30 and beating the previous best of 4:01.67 set by China in Rome in 1994.

In the last race of the Olympic swimming, their male counterparts - Lenny Krayzelburg, Ed Moses, Ian Crocker and Gary Hall - broke the Americans' own 4 X 100 medley relay record, clocking 3:33.73. The country set the previous best of 3:34.84 at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

It was the 14th world record in the Sydney pool. One record was also equalled. The tally compared to four in Atlanta. The women's relay victory also secured Thompson her 10th medal, the most won by a female swimmer in Olympic history.

In the men's 1,500 metres final, eagerly awaited by the home crowd, Australian Grant Hackett stopped compatriot Kieren Perkins from becoming the first male swimmer to win three Olympic golds in the same individual event when he won in 14:48.33.

Perkins was never able to close the gap on Hackett during the race, the defending champion taking silver in 14:53.59 ahead of American Chris Thompson.

De Bruijn, who set her 50 metres world record of 24.13 in Friday's semi-finals, was never in troubled in the one-length race, finishing ahead of Sweden's Therese Alshammar (24.51) with Torres third in 24.63.

"I knew I could do something great but I didn't know how great," she said. "It's easy for outsiders to predict I'll win three golds but it's difficult to achieve."

Australia had to play second fiddle in both relays, taking silver in each. Japan was third in the women's relay and Germany took the bronze in the men's.

The United States finished dominant in the swimming with 14 gold medals. Australia and the Netherlands had five each.



(c) Reuters Limited.