Bernard overcomes relay demons

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-15 08:19

France's Alain Bernard won swimming's blue riband event, the men's 100 freestyle, at the Water Cube yesterday.

He beat archrival Australia's Eamon Sullivan, after trailing at the half-way stage. He finished in 47.21 sec, 0.11 seconds faster than Sullivan, whose consolation was that the world record he had recaptured from the Frenchman in the semifinals (47.05) was not broken.

Jason Lezak of the US, whose sensational last-leg swim denied Bernard and France the 4x100 freestyle relay gold, and Brazil's Cesar Cielo Filho dead-heated for the bronze medal in 47.67.

Said a triumphant Bernard after the race: "I still can't believe it, this is a huge victory over myself.

"I really took the 100m (freestyle) relay loss to my heart and felt personally responsible ... but my coach reminded me that a relay has four people, so one single person can't carry all the weight, that helped me.

"I had to get back into the proper mind set and find again the good sensations that I had in the heats."

Sullivan acknowledged Bernard's comeback.

"To bounce back after the relay takes a lot of guts, full credit to Alain, he was the better man on the day.

"He swam a great race and really worked on my weaknesses. I was maybe caught into swimming other people's races."

French coach Claude Fauquet also paid tribute to Bernard.

"Bernard is a champion, but he has to learn how to deal with defeat and, when he has learnt that, to spring back. That is the sign of a real champion."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/15/2008 page7)