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U.S. women into swimming finals
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- The United States, led by inspiring victories from team captain Lindsay Benko and 13-year-old Dana Vollmer, qualified Saturday for the gold medal final in the Goodwill Games pool. The American women will face Australia, which earlier in the night won its third consecutive round-robin in the dual meet format being used at the Games. Australia defeated Europe 76-73 to relegate the Europeans and the World, which lost 100-49 Saturday to the Americans, to the bronze medal final, also scheduled for Monday.The United States, 2-1 in the round-robin, wasted little time taking a big lead against the World side, winning the opening medley relay before Adrienne Binder took the 400-meter medley to give the Americans a 12-4 lead. They clinched the match with four of 17 races remaining. Benko, coming back from a broken kneecap she suffered in a training accident at the world championships, then won the 200 freestyle and Lauren Thies was second to help put the Americans up 23-11 after four races. "We were trying to get as many points as we could," said Benko, knowing if the Americans lost it would go down to total points against the European side. "We were just trying to swim smart and get our hands on the wall." Vollmer won her event over 50 meters to put the Americans further up, holding off a fast-closing Junko Onishi of Japan. "We can keep up with the best of them, and we showed it tonight," said Vollmer. Earlier, breaststroker Brooke Hanson won two races for Australia. Hanson won the 100-meter breaststroke then broke her own Games record over the 50-meter distance to put Australia ahead. Hanson set the meet record of 32.01 seconds over 50 meters on Wednesday, then improved that to 31.91 on Friday. Five meet records were set in that round-robin, including Inge de Bruijn's effort in the 50 freestyle and Australian and World wins in two relays. "This is fantastic," Hanson said. "It's been a great team effort and I'm happy we'll be going for gold." Australia opened with a win in the medley relay when Sarah Ryan held off world record holder de Bruijn of the Netherlands. De Bruijn entered the water on the anchor leg slightly behind Ryan but emerged on top before the Australian caught her near the turn. De Bruijn said the Europeans were hoping for a win in the medley relay "but we came up too short in the last few meters." After a long season of swimming, de Bruijn admitted she has not lost any of her competitive spirit. "I love my sport," said de Bruijn. "I still feel like a fish in water -- swimming is in my heart." In the 50-meter butterfly, Anna-Karin Kammerling of Sweden won for the Europeans to hand triple world championship gold medal winner Petria Thomas of Australia her first defeat in nine races at the Games. The heavy workload showed again three races later when Thomas lost in the 200 butterfly to Oti Jedrzejczak of Poland. Thomas, who needed brief medical assistance in the warmup pool due to fatigue after the 200 butterfly, was back in the water in the 100 butterfly, where she won one of her world championship gold medals. But Thomas couldn't hold off Martina Moravcova of Slovakia and the Europeans closed to 61-54 before Australia's Dyana Calub, with her second win of the night, took the 50 backstroke to give Australia some breathing room. "I haven't been feeling too good for the last week or so and this race has taken it out of me,' Thomas said of her illness. The men were idle Saturday but return to the pool for their final round-robin matches Sunday. The matchups then will be the same for the medal finals Monday -- Australia vs. the World, who each have 2-0 records and will swim for gold, and the United States against Europe for the bronze. The European men's team, depleted by injuries and conflicting meets, announced Saturday the addition of Norwegian swimmer Kim Hendrikson for its remaining matches. "Tactically, Hendrikson will be of great help," said Europe manager and former Dutch swimmer Marcel Wouda. "Our aim is to be very competitive and give the crowd a show worth coming for."
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