the most heart-stopping race of the beijing 2008 games - the 100m butterfly stroke for men, also phelps quest for his 7th gold - has just concluded. having watched the semifinals the day before, i was quite worried that cavic from serbia may very well upset phelps track record thus far, seeing what a strong contender cavic was with the fastest qualifying time. the mole said however, that phelps would probably have the faster recovery time between the two which should therefore give him an edge in the finals. but as it turns out, cavic has just as speedy a recovery time, as he led the 100m race right from the start, pulling ahead of both phelps and crocker. even in the last 5m, cavic was marginally ahead of phelps which got me thinking shit, there goes phelps olympic immortality. but amazingly, it was the finish that eventually returned the gold to phelps. definitely not one of phelps most spectacular race but perhaps the most clever one. above the water finish? who would have thought of that? was it brilliantly timed or just pure dumb luck? afterall, the difference was only 0.01s. pitied cavic though he came in second, cuz he swam such a good race.
but phelps has been very impressive this game, such a very talented swimmer. for the sake of witnessing the most historical moment in the olympics yet, i hope phelps succeeds in his unthinkable quest. but then again, i will continue to remain a supporter of hoogie, and both sister and sistah as supporters of thorpe. as discussed several times before, the main problem we face now is that we're still too hung up over the hoogie/thorpian era and are not able to move on since. which is why we find it difficult to convert to the phelps camp although we recognize that he is truly talented in his field. much to my surprise, hoogie despite being 30 this yr, still competed in the 100m freestyle. as expected, he did not win the race, and i was too sad to function for the rest of the day after that race. this is most probably his last olympics before he retires like thorpe. how sad. likewise, this olympics will probably mark the peak of phelps career since he would have already turned 27 by the time it's london 2012.
on the gymnastics front, both yang wei and nastia liukin were truly deserving of the individual all rounder title. competition in the ladies event was a tad more intense, as wang yilin and shawn johnson were trailing very close behind. amongst the three, i liked liukin best because she had so much grace and flow in her.
it is quite tiring indeed to work in the day and follow the games at night. have been surviving on double shot espressos during the past week, but this is nothing compared to my colleague who drinks 5 shots a day. a lot of madness going on this games, with world records being smashed everyday, every race like nobody's business. and if you managed to read this post up to this point, then you must be as mad abt the games as we are too.
