Month End - Number of Posts per Olympic Sport

The Swimming World Championships has dominated things in March. But the Cycling World Championships will take centre stage at the beginning of April.

	Archery	1 post		Athletics	14 posts
	Badminton	4 posts		Baseball	0 posts
	Basketball	3 posts		Beach Volleyball	2 posts
	Boxing	1 post		Canoe - Kayak Flatwater	1 post
	Canoe - Kayak_Slalom	1 post		Cycling - BMX	0 posts
	Cycling - Mountain Bike	1 post		Cycling - Road Race	3 posts
	Cycling - Track	3 posts		Diving	1 post
	Equestrian	2 posts		Fencing	0 posts
	Football	2 posts		Gymnastics - Artistic	4 posts
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	Judo	1 post		Modern Pentathlon	0 posts
	Rowing	3 posts		Sailing	3 posts
	Shooting	3 posts		Softball	0 posts
	Swimming	17 posts		Synchronized Swimming	0 posts
	Table Tennis	1 post		Taekwondo	2 posts
	Tennis	1 post		Triathlon	1 post
	Volleyball	1 post		Water Polo	2 posts
	Weightlifting	0 posts		Wrestling	0 posts

Swimming World Championships - Day 7

American Michael Phelps claimed a record-equalling sixth gold medal at the World Championships in Melbourne when he stormed to the 100m butterfly title.

Sweden's Therese Alshammar captured her country's first gold medal of the championships with her victory in the Women's 50m Butterfly Final. She finished in 25.91 seconds, with Australia's Danni Miatke second in 26.05 and Dutchwoman Inge Dekker third in 26.11.

American Ben Wildman-Tobriner won the Men's 50m Freestyle Final in a time of 21.88 seconds. Compatriat Cullen Jones took silver in 21.94, with Swede Stefan Nystrand claiming bronze 21.97. Only 0.17 separated the first five swimmers.

The youngest member of the British team, 16-year-old Lizzie Simmonds finish eighth in the Women's 200m Backstroke Final in a personal best time of 2:11.09. American Margaret Hoelzer won in a time of 2:07.16. Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry took the silver in 2:07.54, while Japan's Reiko Nakamura (2:08.54) claimed bronze.

In the Women's 50m Breaststroke Semi-Final, Kate Haywood qualified eighth fastest in 31.72. Australian Leisel Jones was fastest. Compatriat Tarnee White and Jessica Hardy (USA) will share the centre lanes.

Michael Phelps secured his sixth gold medal of these championships in the Men's 100m Butterfly Final. Phelps was third at the half way turn, 0.43 of a second behind compatriat Ian Crocker. In an exciting finish he managed to win by just 0.05 of a second. Venezuela's Albert Subirats took bronze, the first-ever for his country.

Fran Halsall failed to qualify from the Women's 50m Freestyle Semi-Final. She finished eleventh in a personal best time of 25.32. Dutchwoman Marleen Veldhuis was fastest through but Libby Lenton (Australia), Kara Lynn Joyce (USA) and Therese Alshammar (Sweden) also qualified well.

Liam Tancock, a bronze medallist in the 100m Backstroke, qualified fastest from the Men's 50m Backstroke Semi-Final in a time of 25.08. Fellow Brit Matthew Clay was fifth fastest in 25.48. German's Steffen Driesen and Thomas Rupprath also qualified well.

American Kate Ziegler won the Women's 800m Freestyle Final, just ahead of medallist Laure Manadou (France). The pair exchanged the lead throughout the race, with Manadou ahead by almost half a second with 50m to go. But Ziegler prevailed in a massive personal best by 0.28 of a second. Hayley Peirsol (USA) was third, nearly six seconds behind Manadou.

The British quartet came close to grabbing a medal in the Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final. Mel Marshall on the backstroke leg ensured Britain kept pace with the field behind an Australian team that eventually won gold in a new World Record time. Breaststroke medallist Kirsty Balfourwent well over the second leg before Terri Dunning kept Britain in contention with the Butterfly. Fran Halsall swam a very strong final Freestyle leg a new British Record of 4:02.18.Australia finished in 3:55.74 while the USA took silver in 3:58.31 and China the bronze in 4:01.97.

Swimming World Championships - Day 6

Kirsty Balfour delivered a strong finish to claim silver at the World Championships in Melbourne.

Australia's Libby Lenton maintaining time of 53.40 seconds in the Women's 100m Freestyle Final secured the gold medal. Dutchwoman Marleen Veldhuis took silver in 53.70, with world record holder Britta Steffen (Germany) claiming bronze in 53.74.

British hopes in the Men's 200m Backstroke Final were with James Goddard and Gregor Tait, who finished sixth and eighth. Goddard completed in 1:58.88 and Tait finishing in 1:59.41. Gold went to Ryan Lochte of the USA in a new World Record time of 1:54.32, ahead of compatriat Aaron Peirsol in 1:54.80, with Markus Rogan of Austria third in 1:56.02.

Therese Alshammar set a championship record of 25.82 seconds in qualifying fastest from the Women's 50m Butterfly Semi-Final. Netherlands' Inge Dekker and American Rachel Komisarz will swim alongside her in the final.

Stefan Nystrand was quickest in the Men's 50m Freestyle Semi-Final in 21.99. A close final awaits with only 0.32 separating first and eighth. American Cullen Jones was just 0.01 off Nystrand's time.

Kirsty Balfour trailed Leisel Jones of Australia, throughout the race, but a supreme effort to ensure she claimed asilver medal in the Women's 200m Breaststroke Final. Jones completed in 2:21.84 with Balfour second in 2:25.94 along with Megan Jendrick of the USA for the joint silver.

American Ian Crocker was fastest in the Men's 100m Butterfly Semi-Final. Michael Phelps was third quickest, with Lyndon Ferns of South Africa separating the Americans.

Britain’s youngest team member, 16-year-old Lizzie Simmonds completed the Women's 200m Backstroke Semi-Final in a a new personal best time of 2:11.20 to qualify for tomorrow’s final in eighth place. American Margaret Hoelzer was quickest. Defending champion Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Japan's Reiko Nakamura are the main threats.

Japan secured its first gold medal of the championships in the Men's 200m Breaststroke Final, Kosuke Kitajima went through the first 100m under record pace. He faded slightly, completing his win in 2:09.80, ahead of Australia's Brenton Rickard and Italy's Loris Facci.

Britain’s quartet of Dave Carry, Robbie Renwick, Simon Burnett and Ross Davenport completed the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Final in a British Record time of 7:11.28. But, it was only enough for fourth place. USA won the gold in a new World Record time of 7:03.24, Australia the silver in 7:10.05 and Canada claimed bronze in 7:10.70. Michael Phelps, was first off for the American team, setting the fastest time of all four swimmers, to win his fifth gold medal of the Championships.

Swimming World Championships - Day 5

Kirsty Balfour may have missed out on a medal in the 100m metres breaststroke at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne, but she has a second chance to rewach the podium after qualifiying second fastest for tomorrows 200 metre final.

American Natalie Coughlin set a championship record of 53.40 seconds in qualifying fastest from the Women's 100m Freestyle Semi-Final. Australian Lisbeth Lenton and current world record holder Britta Steffen should be her main rivals for gold in the final.

Michael Phelps claimed his thrird world records and fourth gold medal in winning the Men's 200m Individual Medley Final. Compatriot Ryan Lochte managed to compete with him until the final stages and took silver, while Hungary secured its first medal in Melbourne with a bronze to Laszlo Cseh.

Kirsty Balfour completed her Women's 200m Breaststroke Semi-Final in 2:25.45 and looked good as she ensured her progress to the final. Balfour qualified second fastest for tomorrow’s final behind Australian Leisel Jones in the same semi-final. Jones, the reigning world champion, is on target for a breaststroke double. Suzaan Van Biljon of South Africa won the second heat.

Canadian Brent Hayden and Italian Filippo Magnini shared the gold medal in the Men's 100m Freestyle Final. It's the first time that two athletes have recorded the same winning time at a FINA World Championships, with both men touching the wall in 48.43. It was the first gold medal for both countries. Australia's Eamon Sullivan was just 0.04 of a second behind in a thrilling finish with seven swimmers almost aligned across the pool.


The Australian hosts got their fourth gold through Jessicah Schipper in the Women's 200m Butterfly Final. The world record completed in a time of 2:06.39, ahead of American Kimberly Vandenberg and Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland.

Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) was the quickest in the Men's 200m Breaststroke Semi-Final. Australia's Brenton Rickard and Italy's Paolo Bossini were the closest challengers.

American Leila Vazeri won the Women's 50m Backstroke Final, in a world record time of 28.16, well clear of Belarusian Aliaksandra Herasimenia and Australian Tayliah Zimmer.

James Goddard and Gregor Tait both qualified from the Men's 200m Backstroke Semi-Final. Ammericans, Ryan Lochte and Aaron Peirsol won the two heats, with Lochte qualifying slightly quicker than the defending champion. Markus Rogan of Austria seems the most likely cahllenger.

Despite recording a new British Record in the Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final the British quartet of Caitlin McClatchey, Mel Marshall , Fran Halsall and Jo Jackson were fifth in a time of 7:57.02. The gold went to the USA, in their ninth World Record of the ten already recorded, so far, this week. They finished in 7:50.09, silver went to Germany in 7:53.82 and France took the bronze in 7:55.96.

Swimming World Championships - Day 4

The 12th day of the FINA World Championships in Melbourne provided more historic moments with three more world records, and eleven different nations amongst the medals.

In the Men's 100m Freestyle Semi Final, American veteran Jason Lezak upstaged his higher-fancied rivals to qualify fastest in a time of 48.51 seconds, 0.09 faster than Italy's Filippo Magnini, while Pieter Van Den Hoogenband gets another chance to break his world championship drought, after qualifying third.

Simon Burnett had qualified from the morning heats fifth fastest, but in tonight’s semi-final he couldn’t find enough to secure a place in the final. His finised fifth in his semi-final. His time of 49.22 gives him an overall position of 12th.

Leila Vaziri qualified fastest from the Women's 50m Backstroke Semi-Final in a world record time of 28.16. The American goes into Thursday's final flanked by Aliksandra Herasimenia of Belarus and Reiko Nakamura of Japan.

Michael Phelps (USA) won the Men's 200m Butterfly Final in a world best time of one minute 52.09 seconds. He claimed his third gold medal of the championshiops ahead of China's Peng Wu and Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov.

French swimmer Laure Manaudou won the Women's 200m Freestyle Final with a World Record winning time of 1:55.52, silver went to Germany’s Annika Lurz in 1:55.68 and Frederica Pellegrini of Italy, who had claimed the World Record yesterday, took bronze in 1:56.97. Britain's Caitlin McClatchey finished seventh, in a time of 1:59.28.

Ukrainian Oleg Lisogor's won the Men's 50m BreaststrokeFinal by 0.03 of a second from American Brendan Hansen, in 27.66. South Africa's Cameron Van Der Burgh was third in a field which was separated by just 0.61 of a second.

Australia's Jessicah Schipper was fastest in the Women's 200m Butterfly Semi Final in 2:07.72, with her challengers likely to be American Kimberley Vanderberg and China's Jiao Liuyang.

Jess Dickons and Terri Dunning were both eliminated in tonight’s semi-final. Teenager Dickons completed in 2:11.32 to finish 13th with Dunning recording 2:13..08 to finish 16th.

American Michael Phelps qualifyed fastest from the Men's 200m Individual Medley Semi-Final in 1:57.94, ahead of compatriot Ryan Lochte and Brazilian Thiago Pereira,

Tunisian Oussama Mellouli captured the first ever world championships gold medal for his country in the Men's 800m Freestyle Final. He did not panick when the Frenchman Sebastien Rouault held a two second lead at the halfway mark, and overtook Poland's Przemyslaw Stancyk to take gold. Australian Craig Stevens took the only medal for the Australian hosts
of the day, with bronze.

Swimming World Championships - Day 3

Liam Tancock won Britains first medal in a session where four world records were broken at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne.

Michael Phelps (USA) smashed the World Record in the Men's 200m Freestyle Final and by improving his own personal best by over a second with his time of one minute 43.86 seconds. Former Olympic champion Pieter Van den Hoogenband (Netherlands) was second with Tae Hwan Park (South Korea) claiming Bronze.

Natalie Coughlin broke her own world record in the Women's 100m Backstroke Final. Coughlin stopped the clock at 59.44 seconds, 0.14 seconds under the mark she set in 2002. It had been six years since she previously won a world 100m title in Fukuoka. Frenchwoman Laure Manaudou and Japan's Reiko Nakamura took the silver and bronze respectively.

American Brendan Hansen qualified fastest from the Men's 50m Breaststroke Semi-Final ahead of world record holder Oleg Lisogor of the Ukraine and Russia's Alessandro Terrin. British former World Champion James Gibson was unable to progress from the semi-finals when he finished 11th overall in 28.21.

American Kate Ziegler won the Women's 1500m Freestyle Final in a championship record time of 15 minutes 53.05. Swiss Flavia Rigamonti grabbed her country's first medal of the championships with a silver and Japan's Ai Shibata took bronze.

Liam Tancock gave absolutely everything in the Men's 100m Backstroke Final. He went off fast and touched the wall ahead of the field and under World Record pace at the 50m point. In the second half of the race, Olympic Champion Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte, both from the USA, closed Tancock down to take gold and silver respectively. Peirsol went under 53 seconds for the first time in history to set a new World Record of 52.98, Lochte took silver on the touch in 53.50 with Tancock returning in 53.61.

The fourth world record came in the Women's 200m Freestyle Semi-Final of the women's 200m, where Italian Federica Pellegrini shaved 0.17 off the record. German Annika Lurz was second fastest into Wednesday's final. Caitlin McClatchey produced a strong swim to progress seventh fastest in 1:57.86, but team mate Mel Marshall's time of 1:59.14 saw her finish 11th overall.

Michael Phelps qualified fastest in the Men's 200m Butterfly Semi-Final, an event he also holds the world record in. His main rivals will be three Asian swimmers, China's Peng Wu and Yin Chen and Japan's Ryuichi Shibata.

Leisel Jones, the Australian hero was swimming for gold in the Women's 100m Breaststroke Final. Jones won Australia's third gold of the championships in 1:05.72. Tara Kirk of the USA took the silver in 1:06.34 while Anna Khlistunova of the Ukraine claimed the bronze in 1:07.27. Britains Kirsty Balfour was fifth in 1:08.05 and Kate Haywood was seventh in 1:08.55.

Swimming World Championships - Day 2

There were four finals on Day 2 of the Swimming World Championships. British swimmers had failed to qualify for any of them, but there were encouraging performances by Liam Tancock and Kirsty Balfour who set new British Records on their way to making finals.

The Men's 100m Breaststroke Final was won by Brendan Hansen (USA) with Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) and Brenton Rickard (Australia) claiming the other medals.

The Women's 100m Butterfly Final was won Lisbeth Lenton (Australia) with Jessicah Schipper and Natalie Coughlin (USA) claiming the other medals.

The first of the Men's 100m Backstroke Semi-Final was won by Britain's Liam Tancock. The heat featured the three fastest backstroke swimmers of all time but he didn’t lose focus and lead from the outset to touch ahead of the field. Matthew Clay was also in this heat but finished in 55.32 to miss out on a final place in 13th place overal. The second heat was won by American Ryan Lochte in a new Championship Record.

Two Britains qualified from the Women's 100m Breaststroke Semi-Final. Kirsty Balfour set a new British Record, to qualify behind World Record holder Leisel Jones of Australia in the first heat. In the second heat, Kate Haywood qualified in eighth spot overal.

The Men's 50m Butterfly Final was won by Roland Schoeman (South Africa) with Ian Crocker (USA) and Jakob Schiott Andkjaer (Denmark) claiming the other medals.

Laure Manaudou (France) won the first Women's 100m Backstroke Semi-Final to qualify behind heat two winner Emily Seebohm (Australia)

Dave Carry narrowly missing out on a place in the final of the Men's 200m Freestyle Semi-Final with a twelfth place finish. American Michael Phelps won that heat but the fasted time was recorded by Pieter Van den Hoogenband in the seond heat.

The Women's 200m Individual Medley Final was won by Kathryn Hoff (USA) with Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) and Stephanie Rice (Australia)claiming the other medals.

Swimming World Championships - Day 1

There were four finals on Day 1 of the Swimming World Championships, with British interest in two of them. Unfortunately there were no medals.

The fastest qualifiers in the Women's 100m Butterfly Semi-Final were the Australians Jessicah Schipper and Lisbeth Lenton who both swam in the second heat.

Tae Hwan Park (Korea) won Gold in the Men's 400m Freestyle Final, Oussama Mellouli (Tunisa) Silver and Grant Hackett (Australia) the bronze.

Kathryn Hoff (USA) won the first of the Women's 200m Individual Medley Semi-Finals with Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) winning the second.

Roland Schoeman of South Africa won heat the first if the Men's 50m Butterfly Semi-Finalsl, whilst American Ian Crocker qualified fastest from the second heat.

In the Women's 400m Freestyle Final, Laure Manadou (France) won Gold in a Championship Record time of 4:02.61. Otylia Jedrzejczak (Poland) was second with Ai Shibata (Japan) third.

Britain's Joanne Jackson finished seventh, but her time of 4:07.42 was enough to ensure Olympic Qualification. In the morning, Caitlin McClatchey had just failed to make the final, her ninth fastest time of 4:08.52 was also enough to ensure Olympic qualication.

The two leading qualifiers in the Men's 100m Breaststroke Semi-Final came from heat two. Kosuke Katajima (Japan) went past the American Brendan Hansen in the last twenty metres.

The British relay team qualified for the Women's 4 x 100m Freestyle Final (and thus Beijing). The team of Francesca Halsall, Melanie Marshall, Julia Beckett and Rosalind Brett finished seventh behind the Australians.

The Mens 4 x 100m relay team of Christopher Cozens, Simon Burnett, Ross Davenport and Benjamin Hockin finished ninth fastest in the heats. The time of 3:41.28 was a new British Record. Although they didn't make the final on this occasion, they ensured that Britain has the qualified for Beijing. The Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Final was won by America.

Men's Open Water Swimming

Open Water Swimming is a new event for the Beijing Olympics. Only the 10km event will be contested at the Olympics. Although 5km and 25km events are also contested at the major championships.

Form

Britain's Alan Bircher finished eighth at the World Championships in the 10km event today.

Qualification

25 swimmers will take part. These will be;

• Top 10 finishers - FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships Seville, Spain Apr. 29 - May 4, 2008
• Top finisher from each of the 5 Continental Championships
• 9 or 10 top finishers from FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier Beijing, China May 31 - June 1, 2008
• One Swimmer from China (host nation) unless already qualified.

What to watch

Open Water Swimming is not a particularly spectator friendly event, but like the marathon and the cycling road races, entry is free (as you can line the route). Whether we attend will depend on what we have tickets for on that day.