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Wednesday, 13 August 2008
BEIJING - Australia's Stephanie Rice completed the Olympic medley double with victory in the 200 metres final in world record time at the Beijing Games on Wednesday.
Rice, 20, followed up her world record triumph in the 400m medley on Sunday when she came from behind to overhaul Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry and lower her world record by 0.47secs to two minutes 08.45 seconds.
Coventry took silver in an African record 2:08.59 with American Natalie Coughlin finishing third in 2:10.34.
"I feel great, it's so good I pulled through," Rice said. "I felt a little sick last night but I was up for the challenge and tried to get the best out of myself.
"It's something that I dreamed about for a long time. It's the ultimate goal. I've put a lot of effort into the preparation for this race."
Rice became the first Australian to win swimming's 200m-400m medley double at the Olympics.
It was Australia's fourth gold in the pool with all swum by the crack women's team.
Rice had another stroke-for-stroke battle with Coventry as she did in the 400m medley final before out-touching her at the wall.
"It was so great for me to have them pushing me along, it got the best out of me," she said.
Rice, the pin-up girl of Australian swimming, holds both 200/400m medley world records.
"It hasn't really sunk in what's happened, I'm trying not to think about the end result before I finish swimming but I'm happy with what I've put into this meet and happy with what I've achieved," Rice said.
She completes her program with the women's 4x200m relay on Thursday.
Rice has rocketed to Olympic stardom after taking bronze in both the 200 and 400m medley events at last year's world championships in Melbourne.
Coughlin said the bronze medal was a bonus as she adapts to swimming in a new event on her schedule.
"It's a big surprise. It's a new event, any medal at an event that is not on your programme is gear," she said.
"I'm still trying to figure it out and I'm really happy with how it turned out."
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