Coventry makes third Olympic semifinal

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, a former Auburn University swimmer, reacts after setting a new world record in her women's 100-meter backstroke semi-final during the swimming competitions in the National Aquatics Center at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

By: Special to the News | AU Media Relations | Opelika Auburn News
Published: August 11, 2008

BEIJING, China - Former Auburn swimmer Kirsty Coventry advanced to her third semifinal of the 2008 Olympics on Monday morning as she finished eighth in the preliminary of the women’s 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:12.18.

Coventry, a native of Zimbabwe, has already won a silver medal in the 400m IM and set a world record in the 100m backstroke at the Olympics. Monday night, she will go for gold in the 100m back final while also competing in the 200m IM semifinal.

Coventry finished third in her heat and eighth overall, trailing Australia’s Alicia Coutts with her 2:11.55. Coventry was in fifth after the breaststroke leg, but took over the lead following the backstroke. She dropped back to second in her heat following the butterfly before finishing third.

Two other Tigers were also competing in Monday morning’s preliminaries. Incoming freshman Stephanie Horner (Canada) barely missed
out on a semifinal appearance in the 200m freestyle as she finished 17th overall, fifth in her heat, with a time of 1:58.35. Her time was a half
second faster than her seed time of 1:58.85.

Italy’s Federica Pellegrini finished first in the preliminary, clocking a world record time of 1:55.45.

Rounding out the Auburn contingent was former Tiger Jeremy Knowles (Bahamas) as he finished 35th overall, sixth in his heat, in the men’s
200m butterfly with a time of 2:01.08. The United States’ Michael Phelps won the preliminary after touching in with an Olympics record
time of 1:53.70.

Coventry will be one of two Tigers returning for Monday night's finals at the Beijing National Aquatics Center.

She and Margaret Hoelzer will compete against each other in the 100m backstroke final. Coventry, who set the world record in the semifinals with a time of 58.77, is the top overall seed and will occupy lane four.

Hoelzer will be a little further down the pool in lane seven.

Coventry will then return to the pool to compete in the 200m IM semifinal. She will swim in the first heat, occupying lane six.