{"id":12908,"date":"2012-07-30T01:44:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-29T23:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/olympics-swimming-kitajima-misses-out-hansen-marks-comeback\/"},"modified":"2012-07-30T01:44:39","modified_gmt":"2012-07-29T23:44:39","slug":"olympics-swimming-kitajima-misses-out-hansen-marks-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/olympics-swimming-kitajima-misses-out-hansen-marks-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics-Swimming-Kitajima misses out, Hansen marks comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Clara Ferreira-Marques<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, July 29<\/span> (Reuters) – Japanese Olympic champion Kosuke
\nKitajima failed in his bid to win a third breaststroke double,
\ncoming fifth in a 100 metres race that broke a world record and
\nsaw U.S. arch-rival Brendan Hansen mark his own comeback by
\nsqueezing onto the podium.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Kitajima, hugely popular in Japan, won the 100-200
\nbreaststroke double at both Athens and Beijing Olympics, after
\nfinishing a close fourth in Sydney in the 100 as a 17-year-old.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But, doubt-ridden and aching in the days leading up to the
\nLondon race, he was left behind in Sunday’s final, as South
\nAfrica’s Cameron Van der Burgh, Australia’s Christian Sprenger
\nand Hansen took gold, silver and bronze respectively.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was a really tough race. I needed to break the world
\nrecord to win and to be honest I didn’t have it in me,” he said
\nafter the race, through a translator.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“When I was asked if I could swim 58.4 today, it was
\nimpossible… My personal best is 58.9 seconds, so I am
\ndisappointed not to reach the time.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A time of 58.9 would have put Kitajima on the podium, ahead
\nof both Sprenger, who swam 58.93, and Hansen, at 59.49.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have enjoyed the comeback process until now… I still
\nhave a chance in the 200. It is going to be a high-level race, I
\nhave to think about the 200 more seriously.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Hugely popular in Japan, with nearly 100,000 twitter
\nfollowers tracking his moves, Kitajima fought injury after his
\nAthens triumph to repeat his double in Beijing, then flirted
\nwith retirement.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) – Japanese Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima failed in his bid to win a third breaststroke double, coming fifth in a 100 metres race that broke a world record and saw U.S. arch-rival Brendan Hansen mark his own comeback by squeezing onto the podium. Kitajima, hugely popular in Japan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}