Short Course World Champs, Day 2 Finals: Hansen Triumphs in 100 Breast -- October 8, 2004

INDIANAPOLIS, October 8. THE USA’s Brendan Hansen holds the global standard for the long course 100-meter breaststroke. Tonight he proved he also is pretty fair in the short course race, fighting off a persistent Aussie, in the person of Brenton Rickard, to strike gold in 58.45 to Rickard’s 58.64.

Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Polyakov, who lives and trains in Florida, took the third spot in 59.07, ahead of Brazil’s Eduardo Fischer at 59.53.

Hansen, who admitted he was far from fired up about this meet before getting psyched up by the partisan crowd, commented: ‘I’m extremely happy with the way I did, and I have to be happy with what my efforts are. I put 100 percent in every single one of them.”

Rickard, too, was pleased with the outcome: “I’m pretty psyched to come in second. I knew it was going to be a challenge with Brendan in the race. I gave it my all, and I am just so happy to get second.”

If anything, Polyakov was overwhelmed by his bronze medal swim: “With this meet being a month from the Olympics, I wasn’t sure I could hold my shape. Things just went great and I was able to swim as fast as I wanted. To finish in third place at a competition of this level is incredible.