Kirsty Coventry overcame Sunday night’s disappointment in the 100m backstroke semis by comfortably reaching the 200m individual medley semi-finals at the London Olympic Games yesterday.
Coventry was expected to line up in the first of the two 200m individual medley races last night where she needed to finish in the top four to qualify for tonight’s final. The 28-year-old Zimbabwean swimming icon, who finished seventh in the 100m backstroke semi-final on Sunday evening, bounced back to finish second in heat five after touching the wall in a time of 2:10.51 seconds.
Coventry’s time yesterday, although being the second fastest in all the four heats, was however considerably slower than her silver medal winning time of 2:08.59 in Beijing four years ago.
Sixteen-year-old Chinese teenage sensation Shiwen Ye had the fastest time of all at yesterday’s heats for the 200m individual medley after touching the wall first ahead of Coventry in an incredible time of 2:08.90s.
Coventry was satisfied with her performance. “Better swim this morning. 200 individual medley semi-finals this evening,” she said on her Twitter account after the race.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe female rower Micheen Thornycroft today lines up in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles sculls after finishing third in heat two in a time of 7:47:10s on Saturday. The 25-year-old Thornycroft was behind Australia’s Kim Crow and Natalia Mustafayeva of Azerbaijan, who came first and second in 7:41:18s and 7:46:01s respectively.
Triathlete Chris Felgate will take part in the men’s triathlon final on Tuesday next week, two days after Zimbabwe’s top female long-distance runner Sharon Tavengwa would have taken part in the women’s marathon.
Male long-distance runners Wirimai Juwawo and Cuthbert Nyasango will be the last Zimbabweans in action in the men’s marathon on August 12 as they hope to give the nation some medals.
