BEIJING Charlotte swimmer Mark Gangloff finished in last place in the Olympic 100-meter breaststroke final Sunday night, falling short of his dream of winning a medal in his specialty event.
Japan's Kosuke Kitajima won the gold in a world-record time of 58.91 seconds. Norway's Alexander Dale Oen took the silver and France's Hugues Duboscq the bronze.
Brendan Hansen, Gangloff's American teammate who held the world record in the event until Kitajima erased it, was fourth.
Gangloff, who had hoped to break the one-minute mark for the first time in these Olympics, had a time of 1:00.24. That meant he finished eighth overall out of the 65 swimmers entered in the event. The first six swimmers broke the minute mark in the final.
“My best just wasn't good enough today,” said Gangloff, who still has a medley relay event to swim in Beijing. “That was the fastest field in history for this event.”
Gangloff's personal coach, David Marsh of Mecklenburg Aquatic Club, was in Beijing and watched the performance.
“Mark looked OK with that,” Marsh said by e-mail after the race. “It's a great response to having a ‘poor' first swim (Gangloff nearly missed getting out of the preliminaries in the event).
“Mark's speed just isn't where it has been. His efficiency is at an all-time high, but the event has gone more to the power swimmers.”
After the first 50 meters, Gangloff was fifth.
“My stroke felt pretty good in the first 50,” he said, “but I faded a little bit in the last 10-15 meters. I was actually pretty happy with my time; I got faster in every race here, but it just wasn't enough.”
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