"Our girls went in tonight with the goal of breaking eight minutes, and we wanted to see how far under we could get," said Sandeno, who did not swim in prelims. "The record that was broken [this morning], had stood since 1995, so we wanted to establish a record that would last, and we wanted the gold."
Adam Ritter (Reynoldsberg, Ohio) claimed Team USA's first medal of the evening, winning silver in the men's 100m freestyle. While gold-medalist Andrey Grechin of Russia finished nearly a half-second ahead of the field, just three one-hundredths separated second and fourth places. Ritter battled Brazil's Fernando Silva and the Ukraine's Yuriy Yegoshin down the stretch, and out-touched both to take silver in 49.70. Silva finished in 49.71 for bronze while Yegoshin was fourth in 49.72.
"Tonight coming in to this I guess my mentality was 'time really doesn't matter.' I knew it was going to be a close race with those guys, so I decided to just go out and try to hang on to the lead right from the start," said Ritter. "I was a little bit slower than this morning, but no regrets. I was aggressive in the front half, so I'm happy with that." Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill.) won the "B" final of the men's 100m freestyle with a time of 49.61.
Team USA placed two swimmers in the championship final of the women's 400m IM with Claire Maust (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Kelsey Ditto (Austin, Tx.) Maust made an early play for the medal podium, swimming in second place for the first half of the race, but eventually fell to fifth, touching in 4:13.13. Italy's Federica Pelligrini led throughout to claim gold in a Games-record time of 4:06.11. Corralie Balmy of France was second in 4:10.08, while Jordis Steinegger of Austria was third in 4:11.88. Ditto finished eighth in 4:17.02.
The women's 200m breaststroke went to Korea's Seul Ki Jung, who posted a Games-record time of 2:24.67. Team USA's Elenor Weberg (Boca Raton, Fla.), the lone American swimmer in the "A" final, finished sixth in 2:27.71.
Other Events:
- Team USA did not have a swimmer in the championship final of the men's 100m breaststroke, which was won by Valerii Dymo of the Ukraine (1:01.27).
- American Matt Lowe (Minot, N.D.) competed in the "B" final earlier in the evening.
- Two Americans swam the "B" final of the 50m backstroke. Nick Thoman (Cincinnati, Ohio) and David Plummer (Oklahoma City, Okla.) went one-two in the consolation final. Thoman touched in 25:64 while Plummer finished in 25:74. The times would have placed the duo sixth and seventh in the "A" final. The event was won by Germany's Heldge Folkert Meeuw in 25.42.
- Canada's Brian Johns won the men's 200m IM in 1:59.97. While no Americans swam in the "A" final, Doug Van Wie (2:02.29) and Tim Liebhold (2:02.61) placed fourth and fifth, respectively in the "B" final.
About USA Swimming: As the National Governing Body for competitive swimming in the United States, USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships, disseminates safety and sports medicine information and selects athletes to represent the United States in international competition. USA Swimming has more than 300,000 members nationwide and sanctions more than 7,000 events each year. For more information, visit USA Swimming on-line.
