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SEAN ROONEY
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Medicine Hat’s Richard Hortness fell
short of qualifying for the next round in his lone Olympic swim
Thursday in Beijing, but he did set a new personal best in the 50
metre freestyle.
The 23-year-old clocked in at 22.42
seconds in the 10th of 13 heats in the event at the Water Cube, six
one-hundredths better than the 22.48-second time he swam at the
Canadian trials in April which earned him the spot on Team
Canada.
“My start was awesome, my reaction
time was 0.65 (seconds),” said Hortness early Friday morning
from Beijing. “The race, it felt really good. In that regard
I’m ecstatic.”
Still, that was 31-hundredths too slow to
qualify for the semifinals, where the top 16 will race again Friday
to determine who will swim for gold this weekend. Overall Hortness
was 27th though he was third in his heat.
Hortness said before going to China he
hoped to break the Canadian record of 22.19 seconds. With Olympic
and Canadian records falling repeatedly, there was optimism
he’d achieve that goal but he noted there were other reasons
to be proud of the result.
“The swim was a best time,” he
said. “Our goal (as a team) was 40 per cent best times and
now we’re pushing 60. I’m glad to be able to add to
that — 22.17 was 16th; it would have been an epic swim
(to qualify).”
Regardless, he was the lone Medicine Hat
athlete wearing the maple leaf in Beijing and had plenty of support
from his fans back home, who almost instantly started
congratulating him on the personal best effort.
“Great swim Richard! That was
awesome!” wrote one. “That was one of the coolest
things I’ve ever seen,” said another.
Hortness didn’t walk in the opening
ceremonies, but he will be around for the closing ceremonies Aug.
24. He said he’s already starting to think about a second
trip to the Olympics when they head to London, England in 2012.
“It’s in the mix for
sure,” he said. “It’s more than I expected, I
can’t complain about anything. It’s indescribable, one
of the coolest feelings ever.” |
