Men's 200 Meter Breaststroke

Kosuke Kitajima of Japan is the strong favorite to win the gold medal, mainly because Brendan Hansen failed to qualify in this event, and it was brewing to be a showdown between the two athletes in both breaststroke events. Kitajima is the current WR holder (2:07.51) and defending Olympic champ. Since most swimmers don't know a lick of Japanese, Kitajima has a way of letting them know he's won the race.

Hansen actually finished 4th with a 2:11.37, shocking as he went 2:09.60 in the semis and that would have won the final. This race was his baby. In Hansen's absence the USA is sending Scott Spann (2:09.97) and Eric Shanteau (2:10.36), both are training partners with Hansen on Longhorn Aquatics. Spann's last 50 in the finals was 1 second faster than the rest of the field.


Hansen misses the cut while his teammates Spann and Shanteau qualify

Spann and Shanteau can both compete for the a medal, but they will have some tough competition from Aussie Brenton Rickard (2:09.51), Athens silver medalist Daniel Gyurta, and the other strong European breaststrokers Grigory Falko, Hugues Duboscq and Alexander Dale Oen as all of them are more than a quarter of a second under 2:10.


Eric Shanteau plans to delay surgery to remove cancer until after Beijing

BREAKING NEWS: Eric Shanteau announced that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer 1 week before trials. He's being closely monitored by doctors, and will pull out of the race in Beijing if his heath demans, but he plans to race if he is healthy and will postpone surgery. Even if Shanteau were to pull out of this race, Brendan Hansen still would not get to swim it in the games since he took 4th in the finals at Omaha.

Medal Predictions:

Video:

Watch Scott Spann win the 200m final at trials

Kosuke Kitajima wins gold in Athens

 

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