100 metres Freestyle, Men

The 100 metre freestyle at Beijing promised to deliver a classic head-to-head matchup between two swimmers who were clearly the best in the world and a level above their competition. The two men, Alain Bernard of France and Eamon Sullivan of Australia had both ducked under Pieter van den Hoogenband’s long standing world record in the months prior to the Olympics with the Frenchman’s record time being just 0.02 seconds faster than the Australian’s personal best. The semi-final stage in Beijing was little short of a sensation as firstly Bernard took a huge chunk off the world record then in the second semi Sullivan brought the record down to an almost unbelievable 47.05 seconds. The final did not veer from the expected script and the two men matched each other stroke-for-stroke throughout the race. As the wall approached Bernard had a little more left in the fuel tank than Sullivan and eased away in the last 20 metres to record the victory. Behind the two principals the fight for the bronze medal between Jason Lezak of the USA and César Cielo Filho of Brazil could not produce a winner and the two men tied for the third place on the podium. In 5th was reigning champion van den Hoogenband who made a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to claim a third successive victory in the event.