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Mocanu pulls off backstroke double
= = SYDNEY, Sept 22 (AFP) - Romanian teenager Diana Mocanu became just the fifth woman in history to achieve the backstroke double here Friday when she added the women's 200m title to the 100m she won on Monday. The 16-year-old clocked 2min 08.16sec to defeat former compatriot and world champion Roxana Maracineanu, now competing for France, in 2:10.25, with the bronze going to Japan's Miki Nakao, 2:11.05. "This is an excellent performance for me. I have worked very hard and didn't really care whether I was placed or not. That doesn't matter to me as long as I know I did the best I could do," said Mocanu. The last woman to score the double was Hungarian superstar Krisztina Egerszegi, who did it in 1992. But Mocanu's time was way outside Egerszegi's nine-year world record of 2:06.62. "She was too strong tonight," said Maracineau of her opponent. "I'm very happy to have won a medal. It was more difficult here at the Olympics than I expected. I thought it would be like the world championships, but it was tougher," said 25-year-old, placed fourth in the 100m backstroke. "I'm not happy with finishing second but she (Mocanu) was the stronger swimmer today. I could not have done what she did tonight," she added. Nakao, who won bronze in the 1999 Pan Pacific Games in Sydney, just managed to hold off compatriot Tomoko Hagiwara for third. "The last 50m I knew that the French swimmer was coming so I just did my very best. I was determined not to give in," said Nakao. The 22-year-old from Osaka said that she was had wanted a medal, preferably gold, in Sydney after failing to qualify during the Asian Games. "In the Asian Games I did not qualify and this was a shock for me. I watched it on television and this motivated me. I wanted to be at the Olympics I didn't want to watch it on television. "The Asian meet made me grow up. I started from zero at that point and I really worked hard. Now I have won a bronze medal I think I am mentally stronger," she added.
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