Kirsty medal hopes drown in Shangai

Zimbabwean swimming icon walking away from the scene empty-handed.
Coventry, who turns 28 on September 16 this year, entered for three events at this year’s World Championships – 200m backstroke, 200m and 400m individual medley.
And the effervescent Zimbabwean swimmer failed to give herself an early birthday present as she found the going tough in all these three events, failing to qualify for the finals of any of them.
Coventry, the two-time Olympic champion in the 200m backstroke, first took part in the 200IM on the opening day of the swimming competition in Shanghai last Sunday.
And the Zimbabwean swimming queen made a false start to the meet, failing to qualify for the event’s final after finishing ninth overall in the semi-finals with a poor time of 2 minutes 12,21 seconds.
In fact, Coventry competed in the semi-final of the women’s 200IM and was placed fifth in 2:12.21 and her time was not good enough to place her among the top eight qualifying times for the final.
And after missing out on the 200Im final, Coventry had five days to “refocus” as her last two events – the 200m backstroke and 400IM – were scheduled for last Saturday and yesterday respectively.
Coventry, in fact, admitted that she needed to “refocus” after missing the cut in the semi-finals of the 200IM at the World Swimming Championships in Shanghai.
Coventry, who won silver in the 2008 Olympics in the 200IM with a time of 2:08.59, reflected on her semi-final disappointment in a message posted on Twitter.
“Ninth in the 200IM. Not the time I wanted, but let’s see what the 200m backstroke and 400m IM bring,” she said after her “debacle” last Sunday. In a later tweet, she added: “Using the next couple of days to refocus before my next race.”
Coventry’s disappointment was understandable – her time was more than three seconds out of her silver medal winning effort at the Beijing Olympics, which ironically would have won last Monday’s 200IM final.
Her decision to turn her focus to the 400IM and 200m backstroke was based on form.
She holds the Olympic record in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:05.24 which won her gold in Beijing in 2008, and she won silver in the 400IM. And after her poor performance in the 200IM last Sunday, Coventry was hoping to redeem herself in her favourite stroke – the 200m backstroke – on Saturday. But that was not to be as she once again came short in this event, failing to qualify for Saturday evening’s final.
Missy Franklin of the United States won gold in the 200m backstroke final on Saturday night in 2:05.10, beating Belinda Hocking of Australia (2:06.06) and Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands (2:07.78) into second and third place. Coventry, the world record holder, failed to qualify for the 200m backstroke final. Defending champion Coventry had earlier advanced to the 200m backstroke semis in seventh, having struggled in her earlier races in Shanghai but she failed to make the cut for the final.
“My events just feel really hard, which usually even if I’m a little bit down, they don’t feel that hard,” Coventry told reporters after Saturday’s 200m backstroke event. “The preparation I had coming in wasn’t the best, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I just have to try to have strategic races and hope that kind of gets me into finals.” But her woes continued yesterday when she also failed to qualify for last night’s 400IM final, falling by the wayside in the morning’s preliminaries.
American Elizabeth Beisel won the women’s 400m individual medley title at the world championships yesterday.
Beisel won it in 4:31.78 ahead of Britain’s Hannah Miley and Olympic champion Stephanie Rice of Australia.
At the last World Swimming Championships in 2009 in Rome, Italy, – the last major event she participated in – Coventry took gold in the 200m backstroke and silver in the 400IM.