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The right stroke

Kovacs claims third victory at Imperia World Cup

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Posted: Thursday March 04, 1999 06:39 PM

Kovacs, who previously had won the 50- and 100-meter races, finished the 200 breastroke in two minutes, 23.79 seconds. Al Bello/Allsport

IMPERIA, Italy (AP) -- World champion Agnes Kovacs of Hungary beat Olympic champion Amanda Beard of the United States by nearly three seconds to win the women's 200-meter breaststroke Thursday and claim her third gold at the Imperia World Cup.

Two other world champions, Dutchman Marcel Wouda and Ukrainian Denys Sylantiev, dominated the men's 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly in the second and last day of the competition -- the12th and final round of the World Cup.

Other winners Thursday included Japan's Yoshiko Saito, who took the women's 100-meter backstroke; American Patrick Fowler, who edged Wouda by 0.04 seconds in the men's 10-meter breaststroke; and Denmark's Mette Jacobsen, who captured her second gold in Italy by winning the women's 200 butterfly.

Sweden's Johanna Sjoberg captured the World Cup title in the women's butterfly, adding a victory in Thursday's 50-meter event to the 100 meters the previous day.

For many swimmers, the Imperia event was a warmup for the 1999 World Short Course Championships scheduled for Hong Kong April 1-4.

Kovacs, who previously had won the 50- and 100-meter races, finished the 200 breastroke in 2 minutes, 23.79 seconds.

Beard finished second in 2:26.57.

Brazilian Luiz Lima was unchallenged in the 1,500-meter race.

His compatriot, Fernando Scherer, finished second to Italy's Lorenzo Vismara in the 50 free.

At the end of the competition officials of the International swimming federation (FINA) announced next year's World Cup calendar, starting in Washington on Nov. 17-18 and finishing in Malmo, Sweden Feb. 16-17, 2000.

Next year's World Cup will award a total of $230,000. Swimmers setting wold records at World Cup events will get $40,000 -- double this year's bonus.

Swimming World Cup Results Men 50 freestyle-1, Lorenzo Vismara, Italy, 23.30 seconds. 2, Fernando Scherer, Brazil, 22.32. 3, Alexander Luderitz, Germany, 22.44. 4, (tie) Denis Pimankov, Russia, and Sion Brinn, Britain, 22.57. 6, Sergei Ashikhmin, Russia, 22.63. 7, Marijan Kanier, Croatia, 22.69. 8, Roman Egorov, Russia, 22.90. 50 backstroke-1, Tomislav Karlo, Croatia, 25.00. 2, Sergei Ostapchuk, Russia, 23.57. 3, Ante Maskovic, Croatia, 25.42. 4, Carlos Ramos Spain, 25.56. 5, Miro Zeravica, Croatia, 25.67. 6, Rogerio Romero, Brazil, 25.88. 7, Daniel Carlsson, Sweden, 25.91. 8, Jacob Rask, Denmark, 26.09. 100 butterfly-1, Denys Sylantiev, Ukraine, 52.66. 2, Milos Milosevic, Croatia, 53.14. 3, Anatoli Poliakov, Russia, 53.62. 4, Michael Mintenko, Canada, 53.67. 5, Denis Pankratov, Russia, 53.84. 6, Daniel Carlsson, Sweden, 54.09. 7, Theo Verster, South Africa, 54.69. 8, Georgios Popotas, Greece, 55.08. 100 breaststroke-1, Patrick Fowler, United States, 1:00.97. 2, Marcel Wouda, Netherlands, 1:01.07. 3, Dmitri Komornikov, Russia, 1:01.38. 4, Pavel Anokhin, Russia, 1:01.43. 5, Nathan Hewitt, Australia, 1:01.48. 6, Richard Maden, Britain, 1:01.89. 7, Fabio Farabegoli, Italy, 1:01.98. 8, Roman Havrlant, Czech Republic, 1:02.13. 200 freestyle-1, Massimiliano Rosolino, Italy, 1:47.80. 2, Emiliano Brembilla, Italy, 1:47.95. 3, Alexei Egorov, Russia, 1:48.33. 4, Andy Clayton, Britain, 1:48.49. 5, Chad Carvin, United States, 1:48.54. 6, Michael Mintenko, Canada, 1:49.08. 7, Sion Brinn, Britain, 1:50.36. 8, Dimitris Maganas, Greece, 1:50.42. 200 backstroke-1, Yong Fu, China, 1:56.16. 2, Sergei Ostapchuk, Russia, 1:56.49. 3, Guillermo Mediano, Spain, 1:58.39. 4, Viktor Bodrogi, Hungary, 1:59.29. 5, Rogerio Romeo, Brazil, 1:59.32. 6, Neil Willey, Britain, 2:00.11. 7, Jordi Carrasco, Spain, 2:01.59. 8, Takahiro Mori, Japan, 2:02.11. 200 individual medley-1, Marcel Wouda, Netherlands, 1:58.19. 2, Christian Keller, Germany, 1:58.72. 3, Xufeng Xie, China, 1:59.86. 4, Kresimir Cac, Croatia, 2:00.53. 5, Ismael Garcia, Spain, 2:01.90. 6, Takahiro Mori, Japan, 2:02.22., 7, Alessio Boggiatto, Italy, 2:02.85. 8, Jordi Carrasco,Spain, 2:03.06. 1,500 freestyle-1, Luiz Lima, Brazil, 14:55.44. 2, Emiliano Brembilla, Italy, 15:03.44. 3, Sylvain Cros, France, 15:13.28. 4, Fabio Venturini, Italy, 15:14.05. 5, Davide Bicchierini, Italy, 15:20.79. 6, Luis Rodriguez, Spain, 15:24.24. 7, Stefan Herbst, Germany, 15:29.13. 8, Alessio Boggiatto, Italy, 15:29.18. Women 50 breaststroke-1, Agnes Kovacs, Hungary, 31.42 seconds. 2, Xue Han, China, 31.46. 3, Sylvia Gerasch, Germany, 31.89. 4, Sarah Poewe, South Africa, 31.95. 5, Shan Xu, China, 32.02. 6, Amanda Beard, United States, 32.48. 7, Lisa Blackburn, Canada, 32.50. 8, Smijana Marinovic, Croatia, 32.55. 50 butterfly-1, Johanna Sjoberg, Sweden, 26.87. 2, Katrin Jake, Germany, 27.55. 3, Karina Chaillou, Italy, 27.63. 4, Junko Onishi, Japan, 27.72. 5, Alessandra Cappa, Italy, 28.13. 6, Caroline Foot, Britain, 28.16. 7, Urska Slapsak, Slovenia, 28.24. Disqualified-Anna Nyiry, Hungary. 100 freestyle-1, Sandra Volker, Germany, 54.22. 2, Johanna Sjoberg, Sweden, 55.06. 3, Viviana Susin, Italy, 55.75. 4, Yekaterina Kibalo, Russia, 55.78. 5, Ilona Hlavackova, Czech Republic, 56.13. 6, Lacey Bautwell, United States, 56.38. 7, Cecilia Vianini, Italy, 56.42. 8, Mon Qin, China, 56.43. 100 backstroke-1, Yoshiko Saito, Japan, 1:00.89. 2, Yulia Fomenko, Russia, 1:01.30. 3, Ivette Maria, Spain, 1:02.05. 4, Alessandra Cappa, Italy, 1:02.37. 5, Annamaria Kiss, Hungary, 1:02.85. 6, Kaili Stewart, Canada, 1:03.00. 7, Federica Barsanti, Italy, 1:03.04. 8, Kerry Jiggins, Britain, 1:03.40. 100 medley-1, Xue Han, China, 1:01.10. 2, Natasa Kejzar, Slovenia, 1:02.80. 3, Junko Onishi, Japan, 1:03.16. 4, Yana Klochkova, Ukraine, 1:03.42. 5, Emily Zakrisson, Sweden, 1:03.81. 6, Alenka Kejzar, Slovenia, 1:03.85. 7, Kaili Stezart, Canada, 1:04.35. 8, Lisa Blackburn, Canada, 1:05.01. 200 breastroke-1, Agnes Kovacs, Hungary, 2:23.79. 2, Amanda Beard, United States, 2:26.57. 3, Yuko Sakaguchi, Japan, 2:27.63. 4, Federica Biscia, Italy, 2:28.42. 5, Brigitte Becue, Belgium, 2:29.11. 6, Lisa Blackburn, Canada, 2:33.43. 7, Olga Molchanova, Russia, 2:34.60. 8, Sylvia Gerasch, Germany, 2:38.82. 200 butterfly-1, Mette Jacobsen, Denmark, 2:08.47. 2, Ning Hu, China, 2:09.46. 3, Mandy Loots, South Africa, 2:10.44. 4, Katrin Jake, Germany, 2:12.41. 5, Paola Cavallino, Italy, 2:13.09. 6, Carolyn Gorrick, Australia, 2:17.68. 7, Angela Peretti, Italy, 2:19.64. 8, Urska Ros, Slovenia, 2:19.86. 400 freestyle-1, Silvia Szalai, Germany, 4:08.19. 2, Natasha Bowron, Australia, 4:123.58. 3, Sarah Collings, Britain, 4:13.33. 4, Nathalie Brown, Britain, 4:14.01. 5, Nicola Jackson, Britain, 4:14.44. 6, Joy Symons, Australia, 4:17.67. 7, Rebecca Cooke, Britain, 4:21.53. Did Not Start-Nadezhda Chemezova, Russia. 400 invididual medley-1, Yana Klochkova, Ukraine, 4:34.56. 2, Yasuko Tajima, Japan, 4:38.21. 3, Emily Zakrisson, Sweden, 4:46.72. 4, Chiara Negrini, Italy, 4:47.69. 5, Katia Sarakatsani, Greece, 4:50.15. 6, Chris Wiegand, Germany, 4:53.05. 7, Rebecca Cooke, Britain, 4:57.14. Did Not Start-EvaMasetti, Italy.

 

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