The winds finally eased up this morning only to be replaced by the burning sun, which due to the fact that Michael Phelps (USA) had the morning off, made today's prelims a bit unmoving. Luckily Ian Thorpe (AUS) and Pieter vd Hoogenband (NED) were back for the men's 100 free to drop some speed. Not so for top seed Jason Lezak (USA) who touched in 49.87, which put him in 20th spot and out of the semi-finals. His teammate, Ian Crocker (USA) was also off his best and tied for 16th spot after the DQ of George Bovell (TRI), however Bovell was later re-instated leaving Crocker out too. That means the USA will not have a swimmer in the final of the men's 100 free for only the third time in history. The first was in 1896 when only 2 swimmers swam in the final, the second 1980 due to the US boycott.

Canadians Brent Hayden (CAN) and Rick Say (CAN) scratched the event to rest for the 4x200 free. The 100 is Hayden's best event and he is the Canadian record holder, but he made the decision to scratch the 100 as well as sit out the heats of the 4x200 in order to prepare for the final tonight. Unfortunately no one mentioned the scratch to the CBC, which did a live feed back to Canada for TSN because they thought 2 Canadians would be swimming in the same heat. It wasn't until the swimmers walked on deck and Canada's lanes were empty that CBC had to speculate as to why the swimmers were out of the race.

In the women's 200 fly there were few surprises; Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL) went a 2:09.64 for the top spot. Petria Thomas (AUS), Kaitlin Sandeno (USA) and Eva Ristov (HUN) all swam 2:10s to make it into the top 16 which took a 2:12.34.

Mike Brown (CAN) had the best swim of the Canadian team so far during these Games. His 2:12.69 was a new Canadian record and qualified him into tonight's semi-final in 4th spot. Brown has been one of the few bright spots in the dark cloud hanging over Canadian swimming for the last few years. Mike's 200 was only the 2nd personal best time out of almost 30 swims posted by the Canadians here in Athens. The best swim of the morning went to Daniel Gyurta (HUN) the 15-year-old, with a 2:11.29.

All the favourites qualified for the final of the men's 4x200 free with USA in top spot followed by Australia, Germany, Great Britain and Canada. The event is Canada's best chance for a medal at the Games and Rick Say, who was 6th in the 200 last night, is adamant they will. "We came here to get a medal and we will win one tonight." In regards to scratching the 100 free to concentrate on the relay, Rick said, "Why swim an event I can't make a second swim in? This is a team sport and it's a team event and I am here to get a medal."

DAY 4 AUGUST 17

PRELIMS

MEN
100 METRES FREESTYLE
1    48.70    vdHoogenband Pieter,78,NED
2    48.85    Gimbutis Rolandas,81,LTU
3    48.85    Neethling Ryk,77,RSA
4    49.07    Draganja Duje,83,CRO
5    49.08    Bousquet Frederick,81,FRA
6    49.17    Thorpe Ian,82,AUS
7    49.49    Barnier Romain,76,FRA
8    49.51    Popov Alexander,71,RUS
9    49.52    Kapralov Andrei,80,RUS
10    49.54    Mankoc Peter,78,SLO
11    49.58    Magnini Filippo,82,ITA
12    49.61    Bovell George,83,TRI
13    49.68    Schoeman Roland,80,RSA
14    49.69    Rojas Luis,79,VEN
15    49.71    Spanneberg Torsten,75,GER
16    49.72    Iles Salim,75,ALG
17    49.73    Yegoshin Yuri,85,UKR
18    49.73    Crocker Ian,82,USA
19    49.74    Cavic Milorad,84,SCG
20    49.75    Nystrand Stefan,81,SWE
21    49.87    Lezak Jason,75,USA
22    49.93    Novy Karel,80,SUI
23    49.97    Kidd Matthew,79,GBR
24    49.98    Meolans Jose M.,78,ARG
25    50.03    Vismara Lorenzo,75,ITA
26    50.18    Venancio Tiago,87,POR
27    50.24    Okumura Yoshihiro,83,JPN
28    50.26    Zubor Attila,75,HUN
29    50.36    Neviarovski Stanislav,81,BLR
30    50.48    Lorente Eduardo,77,ESP
31    50.56    Callus Ashley,79,AUS
32    50.61    Grigoriadis Aristidis,85,GRE
33    50.67    Rajakyla Matti,84,FIN
34    50.67    Souza Jader,82,BRA
35    50.94    Miloslavskis Romans,83,LAT
36    50.98    Kunzelmann Stephan,78,GER
37    51.02    Haustov Danil,80,EST
38    51.10    Aresti Alexandros,83,CYP
39    51.11    Pini Ryan,83,PNG
40    51.42    Probert Carl,75,FIJ
41    51.45    Kutscher Paul A.,77,URU
42    51.52    Tayla Kaan,86,TUR
43    51.56    Gibson Cameron,82,NZL
44    51.69    Gleason George,79,ISV
45    51.74    Lee Chung-Hee,81,KOR
46    51.74    Ortiz Ismael,82,PAN
47    51.84    Gutsu Octavian,82,MDA
48    51.89    Alleyne Damian,83,BAR
49    51.91    Schnettler Max,86,CHI
50    52.04    Ong Allen,79,MAS
51    52.09    Titarenko Vyacheslav,78,KAZ
52    52.33    Antonov Raichin,80,BUL
53    52.57    Becerra Camilo,80,COL
54    52.58    Wu Nien-Pin,83,TPE
55    52.75    Panic Zeljko,76,BIH
56    52.83    Chay Mark,82,SIN
57    52.92    Agafonov Alex,76,UZB
58    54.17    Al Jassimi Obaid,81,UAE
59    55.24    Thom Onan,84,GUY
60    55.46    Huang Shaohua,84,CHN
61    56.42    Farhoudi Babak,85,IRI
62    56.47    Ravera Jean-L,79,MON
63    56.81    Abbas Mohammed,78,IRQ
64    57.29    Andrey Tamir,86,MGL
65    57.79    Matonse Leonel,88,MOZ
66    57.94    Shehab Hesham,88,BRN
67    58.26    Dyachkov Sergey,82,AZE
68    59.19    Ahmed Muntaz,70,PAK
69    1:09.40    Nziyunvira Emery,84,BDI


200 METRES BREASTSTROKE
1    2:11.29    Gyurta Daniel,89,HUN
2    2:11.97    Kitajima Kosuke,82,JPN
3    2:12.09    Bossini Paolo,85,ITA
4    2:12.69    Brown Michael,84,CAN
5    2:12.77    Hansen Brendan,81,USA
6    2:12.96    Polyakov Vladislav,83,KAZ
7    2:13.08    Edmond Ian,78,GBR
8    2:13.45    Falko Grigori,87,RUS
9    2:13.59    Usher Scott,83,USA
10    2:13.79    Piper Jim,81,AUS
11    2:14.10    Imamura Genki,82,JPN
12    2:14.12    Parkin Terence,79,RSA
13    2:14.31    Podoprigora Max,78,AUT
14    2:14.36    Bodor Richard,79,HUN
15    2:14.61    Lai Zhongjian,88,CHN
16    2:14.68    Cook Chris,79,GBR
17    2:14.92    Komornikov Dimitri,81,RUS
18    2:15.29    Kruppa Jens,76,GER
19    2:15.39    Sirisanont Ratapong,76,THA
20    2:15.52    Dymo Valeriy,85,UKR
21    2:15.60    Sveinsson Jakob,82,ISL
22    2:15.75    Williamson Michael,81,IRL
23    2:15.86    Harrison Regan,77,AUS
24    2:16.04    Fischer Eduardo,80,BRA
25    2:16.56    Duboscq Hugues,81,FRA
26    2:16.80    van Valkengoed Thijs,83,NED
27    2:17.12    Gustavsson Martin,80,SWE
28    2:17.19    Alexandrov Mihail,85,BUL
29    2:17.20    Knabe Morgan,81,CAN
30    2:17.47    Malek Daniel,73,CZE
31    2:17.78    Daid Sofiane,82,ALG
32    2:17.90    Baldin Aleksander,85,EST
33    2:18.18    Alyfadis Romanos,86,GRE
34    2:18.48    Morkovin Andrei,85,UZB
35    2:18.64    Ally Bradley,87,BAR
36    2:18.65    Tahirovic Emil,79,SLO
37    2:18.81    Rogulj Vanja,82,CRO
38    2:19.19    Molina Miguel,84,PHI
39    2:19.25    Labowitch Ben,80,NZL
40    2:19.38    Facci Loris,83,ITA
41    2:19.48    Tam Chi Kin,80,HKG
42    2:20.65    Wang Wei-Wen,86,TPE
43    2:22.31    Fall Malick,85,SEN
44    2:23.12    Dautartas Edvinas,87,LTU
45    2:27.21    Postica Sergiu,85,MDA
46    2:28.59    Kramarenko Anton,84,KGZ

4X200 FREE RELAY
1    7:12.80    United States,USA
        1:49.53 Goldblatt Scott
        1:47.39 Lochte Ryan
        1:48.10 Ketchum Dan
        1:47.78 Vanderkaay Peter
2    7:14.85    Australia,AUS
        1:49.09 Pearson Todd
        1:49.34 Matkovich Antony
        1:47.73 Sprenger Nicholas
        1:48.69 Stevens Craig
3    7:16.75    Germany,GER
        1:50.37 Osterling Johannes
        1:48.92 Herbst Stefan
        1:48.66 Hell Heiko
        1:48.80 Keler Christian
4    7:17.41    Great Britain,GBR
        1:50.43 Burnett Simon
        1:49.24 Davenport Ross
        1:48.46 Meadows Gavin
        1:49.28 Carry David
5    7:18.05    Canada,CAN
        1:50.87 Johnston Mark
        1:48.86 Hurd Andrew
        1:48.73 Johns Brian
        1:49.59 Say Rick
6    7:18.26    Italy,ITA
        1:50.63 Pelliciari Matteo
        1:49.08 Cercato Simone
        1:50.08 Cappellazzo Federico
        1:48.87 Rosolino Massimiliano
7    7:19.81    Greece,GRE
        1:50.99 Zisimo Andreas
        1:50.21 Manganas Dimitrios
        1:48.58 Antonopoulos Apostolos
        1:49.93 Xylouris Nikolaos
8    7:21.31    France,FRA
        1:49.65 Leveaux Amaury
        1:49.64 Horth Fabien
        1:50.36 Kintz Nicolas
        1:51.66 Rostoucher Nicolas
9    7:22.70    Brazil,BRA
10    7:22.87    China,CHN
11    7:23.97    Russia,RUS
12    7:24.13    Ukraine,UKR
13    7:26.26    Czech Republic,CZE
14    7:27.99    Portugal,POR
15    7:29.54    Mexico,MEX
16    7:31.78    Hungary,HUN

WOMEN

200 METRES BUTTERFLY
1    2:09.64    Jedrzejczak Otylia,83,POL
2    2:10.04    Nakanishi Yuko,81,JPN
3    2:10.49    Risztov Eva,85,HUN
4    2:10.50    Sandeno Kaitlin,83,USA
5    2:10.87    Thomas Petria,75,AUS
6    2:10.99    Lee Georgina,81,GBR
7    2:11.17    Galvez Felicity,85,AUS
8    2:11.20    Osada Yukiko,81,JPN
9    2:11.40    Segat Francesca,83,ITA
10    2:11.66    Pelaez Maria,77,ESP
11    2:11.77    Li Jie,84,CHN
12    2:11.96    Kirk Dana,84,USA
13    2:11.99    Jacobsen Mette,73,DEN
14    2:12.25    Mehlhorn Annika,83,GER
15    2:12.26    Mongel Aurore,82,FRA
16    2:12.34    Cavallino Paola,77,ITA
17    2:12.54    Boulsevicz Bea,87,HUN
18    2:12.99    Bulakhova Maria,88,RUS
19    2:13.02    Vives Roser,84,ESP
20    2:13.08    Felgueiras Raquel,80,POR
21    2:13.68    Bardach Georgina,83,ARG
22    2:13.88    Angelopoulou Vasiliki,87,GRE
23    2:13.92    Zahrl Petra,81,AUT
24    2:14.30    Kwon You-Ri,89,KOR
25    2:16.25    Cheng Wan Jung,88,TPE
26    2:16.51    Stojanovska Vesna,85,MKD
27    2:17.15    Samorodina Nataliya,83,UKR
28    2:18.15    Klinar Anja,88,SLO
29    2:18.45    Chan Wing Suet,87,HKG
30    2:19.34    Roffey Heather,87,CAY
31    2:20.17    Gonenc Gulsah,85,TUR
32    2:26.21    Bouvron Christel,84,SIN