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NewsDay

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Kirsty Coventry clears first hurdle

Sport
Swimming star Kirsty Coventry was late last night expected to take part in the semi-finals of the women’s 100m backstroke after progressing from the heats at the Aquatics Centre in London yesterday. Coventry finished fourth in heat four of the women’s 100m backstroke yesterday in a time of 1:00,24 secs, in the process qualifying, to […]

Swimming star Kirsty Coventry was late last night expected to take part in the semi-finals of the women’s 100m backstroke after progressing from the heats at the Aquatics Centre in London yesterday.

Coventry finished fourth in heat four of the women’s 100m backstroke yesterday in a time of 1:00,24 secs, in the process qualifying, to the semi-finals with the 15th best time out of the 16 who lined up in the semi-final.

The 100m backstroke final is scheduled to take place today along with the heats and semi- finals of the 200m individual medley women’s race.

Australia’s Emily Seebohm was the top qualifier in the Olympic women’s 100m backstroke heats with a time of 58,23 seconds.

Seebohm’s time was an Olympic-record time and lowered the old mark of 58,77 set by Coventry of Zimbabwe four years ago in Beijing.

The other top qualifiers were the United States’ Melissa Franklin with 59,37 and Australia’s Belinda Hocking with 59,61.

Meanwhile female rower Micheen Thornycroft will tomorrow line-up in the repechage round, which offers a second chance to qualify for the quarter-finals of the women’s singles sculls after finishing third in heat two on Saturday.

Thornycroft will today lineup with Phuttharaksa Rodenburg from Thailand, Lithuania’s Donata Vistartaite, Julia Levina from Russia and Lucia Palermo from Argentina.

The best three boats in each quarter-final qualify for semi-finals A/B, with the best three boats in each of the four semi-finals qualifying for final A. All other boats progress through a series of races to finals B, C, D, E and (if necessary) F, which determine the other placings.

In the men’s singles sculls, Jamie Frazer Mackenzie finished a disappointing fifth out of six boats in his heat on Saturday to sneak through to the repechage round, where he put on a good show to qualify to Wednesday’s semi- final E/F.