Kirsty Coventry wins women's 200m Backstroke gold with WR

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe finally quenched her thirst for gold with a world record in the women's 200 meter Backstroke at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, in the Water Cube on 16 August, 2008.


(Photo credit: Chen Kai/Xinhua)

Coventry was earlier beaten by Natalie Coughlin in the Women's 100m Backstroke final on August 12, 2008. She had earlier won three silver medals each in 400m Individual Medley, 200m Individual Medley, and 100m Backstroke.

Defending Olympic champion Coventry qualified fastest for the final and blew away her opponents from the start, turning in front at each turn under world record pace. She turned at the half way mark in 1:32.69 to come home in 32.55 to better the world record by 0.85 seconds with a time of 2:05.24.


(Photocredit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

World record holder Margaret Hoelzer of the United States was unable to reel Coventry in and finished with the silver medal in 2:06.23, 0.99 seconds behind Coventry.

Nakamura Reiko of Japan, the bronze medalist from the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2007 world championships, won the bronze medal in an Asian Record time of 2:07.13, 1.89 seconds behind Coventry.


(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)