Sunday, August 17, 2008

michael makes it 8 as we bid farewell to the water-cube...

its the last of our days at the beautiful Water Cube....so sad it has to come to an end, for it was undoubtedly the most spectacular swimming the world has ever witnessed!

and if before this all started, i would say i already had a bit of a crush on michael phelps...but now, i would sayd tht i LOVE him!!! i LOVE the baltimore bullet.....;)

anyway, before i get carried away dreaming of him - here's a recap of the medals since i last wrote...

14 August 2008


men's 200m breastroke
gold - kosuke kitajima (2:07.64 - OR)
silver - brenton rickard (2:08.88 - OC)
bronze - hugues duboscq (2:08.94)

hands down, the best breastroker in the world...was there any doubt he wouldnt get gold? i probly expected him to break his own WR, bt hey - it's the medal tht counts aye...:)

women's 200m butterfly
gold - zige liu (2:04.18 - WR)
silver - liuyang jiao (2:04.72)
bronze - jessicah schipper (2:06.26)

yup, tht's right...it's CHINA 1 and 2!!! how awesome is tht! china's first gold in the pool and to make it sweeter - she lowered schipper's previous WR of 2:05.40!!! and the defending olympic champion - otylia jedrzejczak of poland - only managed 4th...the home crowd was definately pleased! :)



men's 100m freestyle
gold - alain bernard (47.21)
silver - eamon sullivan 47.32)
bronze - jason lezak (47.67)

this was such a close race! i was obviously hoping for the best final yet - i mean, wouldnt u? after the brilliant semis?...anyways, even though my choice - the aussie eamon sullivan, off course! - didn't win, it was nevertheless, a brilliant race! i guess i was also happy tht bernard didnt lower eamon's WR of 47.05...:)

oh, and hoogie, sadly wasn't able to make history by winning his 3rd olympic 100m free...and it's also a sad day for the swimming world, cos he retired shortly after the race....bt no worries, i'll always remember the brilliant dutch - pieter van den hoogenband! :)



womens' 4x200m freestyle relay
gold - australia (7:44.31 - WR)
[stephanie rice, bronte barratt, kylie palmer, linda mackenzie]
silver - china (7:45.93 - AS)
[yu yang, qianwei zhu, miao tan, jiaying pang]
bronze - usa (7:46.33 - AM)
[allison schmitt, natalie coughlin, caroline burckle, katie hoff]
oh.my.god!!! the beautiful and brilliant aussie girls did wht the american boys did for their relay! they demolished the previous WR of 7:50.09 held by the americans...thts a bloody 5-second drop! how awesome is tht!

stephanie rice, was good, and though she trailed the french at first, bronte barratt superbly puched the aussies up front!...it was definately a superb swim by all! and the top4 teams - 4th being the italians who set a new ER of 7:49.46 - were all under the previous WR!!! wht is this, if not brilliance? :)

15 August 2008



women's 200m breastroke
gold - rebecca soni (2:20.22 - WR)
silver - leisel jones (2:22.05)
bronze - sara nordenstam (2:23.02 - ER)
damn...wht an upset!!! jones was leading pretty much all the way till the last 50m where soni juz burst right-on thru and made it clear tht the gold medal had her name on it! i mean, it was no competition - 2seconds between them! not only did she out-swim jones here, she destroyed jones' previous WR of 2:20.54....wht a great race! :)



men's 200m backstroke
gold - ryan lochte (1:53.94 - WR)
silver - aaron peirsol (1:54.33)
bronze - arkady vyatchanin (1:54.93 - ER)

this was a bloody spectacular race!!! ryan and aaron came into this as co-WR-holders...well, we can safely say - NOT ANYMORE!!! :) lochte killed their prev WR of 1:54.32, and has definately taken-over from peirsol as america's backstroke king! :) i was sad, cos i really liked peirsol, but at the same time, stoked, cos we've got a new poster-boy for the backstroke - 24y/o lochte...:)



men's 200m IM
gold - michael phelps (1:54.23 - WR)
silver - laszlo cseh (1:56.52 - ER)
bronze - ryan lochte (1:56.53)

i found this race brilliant in more ways than one...it was michael's number 6!!! and again, it was a WR..surpassing HIS previous WR of 1:54.80...how cool is tht...juz one step closer to equalling mark spitz's record 7...:) the hungarian cseh was equally awesome! i mean, granted he wasnt gonna surpass michael, bt he kept up! and at times, they were on par! he is bloody awesome! and ryan! he juz swam and won gold juz minutes ago, and here he is again! fantabulous!!! :)



women's 100m freestyle
gold - britta steffen (53.12 - OR)
silver - lisbeth trickett (53.16)
bronze - natalie coughlin (53.39 =AM)

who is this german girl?!? we all thought - well, at least i for one did - tht libby trickett was a sure-win for this event...,bt lo-and-behold! she was overtaken and beaten by juz 0.04seconds! whoa...bt hey - at least libby still holds on to her WR of 52.88...:)

16 August 2008


women's 200m breastroke
gold - kirsty coventry (2:05.24 - WR)
silver - margaret hoelzer (2:06.23)
bronze - reiko nakamura (2:07.13 - AS)

yay!!! im a big fan of this brilliant swimmer from zimbabwe...and she did it! she finally got gold and lowered hoelzer's WR of 2:06.09!!! :)



men's 100m butterfly
gold - michael phelps (50.58 - OR)
silver - milorad cavic (50.59 - ER)
bronze - andrew lauterstein (51.12 - OC)

omg!!! this right here is THE untimate definition of tht phrase LUCKY NUMBER 7!!!! holy fuck! wht was he thinking!!! it was sooo bloody close tht no-one, and i mean no human eye could have caught it!

not surprisingly, the serbian team submitted a protest and wanted to see the video replay...granted, the OMEGA technology used for the timing is as good as perfect - even vouched-for by the great alexander popov - bt i guess we can all understand the need to see it with our own 2 eyes...with tht, they admitted, they agreed, their man cavic lost....coincidentally, cavic was the previous OR-holder, which he set 2days ago...
bt how bloody close was tht?!? 0.01seconds seperated them!!!! all i can say is, michael had better thank his lucky stars after tht one!
btw, the previous WR holder - ian crocker, WR = 50.40 - came in 4th with a time of 51.13...
wht a race...im quite sure my BP sky-rocketed watching this race....;)

p/s: cavic is actually really cute...hehe...;)



women's 800m freestyle
gold - rebecca adlington (8:14.10 - WR)
silver - alessia filippi (8:20.23)
bronze - lotte friis (8:23.03)

the english have finally made their long-awaited mark in the pool...she led right from the start and in the end, the 19-yr old brit shaved-off an incredible 2.12seconds off the previous WR of 8:16.22 set by janet evans in 1989 - the yr adlington was born!...how cool is tht!



men's 50m freestyle

gold - cesar cielo fihlo (21.30 - OR)

silver - amaury leveaux (21.45)

bronze - alain bernard (21.49)
holy crap! wht a race!!! i obviously wanted my favourite - WR-holder eamon sullivan - to win...bt hey, a 50m race is fair-game! in the end, eamon came in 6th with a time of 21.65 - WELL off his WR of 21.28....cielo fihlo definately sprang a MAJOR upset, breaking his own OR of 21.34 along the way to win this race of the fastest men! and understandably, he was emotional at the end of it...:)
17 August 2008



women's 50m freestyle

gold - britta steffen (24.06 - OR)
silver - dara torres (24.07 - AM)
bronze - cate campbell (24.17)

her 2nd gold of the games - and this time around, she breaks the previous OR of 24.13 set by the great inge de bruijn in 2000...more importantly, dara was soo close to gold!!! this 41-year old mom was only 0.01seconds behind steffen! how awesome is tht?!? unfortunately, our dear WR-holder libby trickett wasnt even able to medal! instead, she had to settle for 4th with a time of 24.25....hmm...


men's 1500m freestyle
gold - oussama mellouli (14:40.84 - AF)
silver - grant hackett (14:41.53)
bronze - ryan cochrane (14:42.69)

aaarghh!!! wht a shame!!! on one hand, im soo bloody devastated tht grant wasnt able to retain his title and get his historical hattrick! i mean, to add salt to wound, im quite sure he's under-performed this whole olympics! all this despite all the measures he'd taken...he swam WELL outside his WR of 14:34.56 bt at least tht WR still stands and his name is still up there...and i'm happy for tht...:) oh well, he'd taken over the reigns from the great kieran perkins, so i guess it's time to pass the baton?

on the other hand, this is EXACTLY why i love the olympics! it's a world-class competition and anyone, from any part of the world has a chance at shining! and in this case, it's the tunisian mellouli..wht an upset! he stood-by hackett and the canadian cochrane and in the final leg, juz burst ahead of grant - who i must say, tried his mightiest to catch up - and took home the gold! wht a feat...:)


women's 4x100m medley relay
gold - australia (3:52.69 - WR)
[emily seebohm, leisel jones, jessicah schipper, lisbeth trickett]
silver - usa (3:53.30 - AM)
[natalie coughlin, rebecca soni, christine magnuson, dara torres]
bronze - china (3:56.11 - AS)
[jing zhao, ye sun, yafei zhou, jiaying pang]

omg! the golden girls are back! the same 4 who won the gold in athens did it again! :) wht a show! they obliterated their previous WR of 3:55.74...awesome-ness!!! but i definately have to give props to the americans for putting up a fight! even dara torres - who had swum and won a silver earlier - put every ounce of energy she had left in her to keep up, bt the aussies proved to powerful! :)
and hey - china?!? awesome.....:)



men's 4x100m medley relay

gold - usa (3:29.24 - WR)
[aaron peirsol, brenden hansen, michael phelps, jason lezak]
silver - australia (3:30.04 - OC)
[hayden stoeckel, brenton rickard, andrew lauterstein, eamon sullivan]
bronze - japan (3:31.18 - AS)
[junichi miyashita, kosuke kitajima, takuro fujii, hisayoshi sato]
he already matched mark spitz's historical haul of 7medals in a single olympic..NOW - with the help of 3 others who are the best in their respective disciplines - michael phelps IS the GREATEST olympian and swimmer of our modern-day with his final tally of 8gold medals!!!

the americans led from start to finish and they demolished their previous WR 3:30.68!! we had an exciting run in the 2nd leg - the breastroke - where we saw kitajima single-handedly put the japanese team on par with the top 2...how cool was tht!

but hey - it was juz sooo bloody obvious tht the americans were the ones to win - but i must say, the aussies put up a brilliant challenge! especially in the final leg, where eamon sullivan looked like he could actually pull off the greatest upset of the olympics and be the one to deny michael his historical 8! but in the end, it was juz a split of 0.70seconds! the aussies can only be proud of tht, as they are a young team adn i can forsee them making waves in the near future...i say this cos if you look at the great american team, it'll probly only be michael who'll be back in 4years to defend the title...hmm...we'll wait and see, now shall we? :)
michael was also honoured and acknowledged for his brilliant wins and sportsmanship and we FINALLY see some emotion from him as the american anthem played...*sigh*...FINA and the swimming world can only hope tht this will bring the much-needed publicity the sport soo needs...
wht a run...wht a brilliant olympics! thank you beijing, thank you michael! ;)

3 comments:

Stephanie Wong said...

OMG how close was that 100m fly?? i swear if cavic just did ONE more kick, phelp's could kiss his 8 gold medals goodbye. he was SO DARN lucky!
and i so feel for hackett. he worked so hard. i reckon if he swam next to mellouli (gosh it sounds like malleoli :p)he would've picked up the speed a bit earlier.
i think phelp's should retire while he's still good. so he can go out with style :)

Stephanie Wong said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
-[nana]- said...

YEAH!!! it was definately ALL LUCK!! like i said, i dunno wht he was thinking with tht race!
and yeah, i knw hackett worked soo hard and was soo anal abt his health, bt it was sad tht in the end, he kinda did under-perform...

no steph! he cant retire! cos in 2012, i'll be poolside at london, cheering him on! lol...