Peirsol’s gold rush complete

Aaron Peirsol claimed his third gold medal in as many tries to

complete his swimming competition at the Olympics Saturday in Athens,

Greece.

The Newport Harbor High alum swam the 100-meter backstroke leg to

help Team USA break the world record in the men’s 400 medley relay

Saturday. Peirsol opened the relay with a world record of his own,

clocking 53.45 seconds.

Team USA finished in 3:30.68.

Peirsol won his gold in Athens in the 100 back with a time of

54.06. Lenny Krazelburg set an Olympic record in the 100 back at

Sydney, Australia in 2000 in 53.72, and he set the world record of

53.60 the year before, also in Sydney.

Peirsol earned his second Athens gold in the 200 back. His time of

1:54.95 broke the Olympic record of 1:55.14 he set the night before

in the semifinals. He became only the fifth swimmer in history to win

both the 100 and 200 back events in the same Olympics.

* In other Olympic action:

Taylor Dent lost to Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 4-6, 6-2, 14-16,

in the bronze medal match of the men’s tennis tournament. The match

took three hours and 25 minutes to complete, the longest three-set

singles match in Olympic history.

Dent, a Corona del Mar High product, battled back from a 3-5 match

point opportunity for Gonzalez to tie the third set at 5-5. The

former Sea King had a match-point chance of his own, serving at

14-13, but Gonzalez ended up winning the final three games to give

his country its first medal of the Athens Games.

Misty May and Kerri Walsh beat Jia Tian and Fei Wang of China,

21-11, 21-18, to advance to the quarterfinals of women’s beach

volleyball. May, a Newport Harbor alum and Dent’s cousin, had 15 digs

in the match to help her team advance to the quarterfinals.

May-Walsh, who have not lost a game in four matches, will face

Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin of Canada today at 10 a.m. Pacific

time.

Newport Beach resident Peter Wells remained in 25th place

following two races Saturday in men’s windsurfing. The former UC

Irvine All-American sailor finished 27th and 24th, respectively, in

the two races to give him 154 points through eight races with three

remaining.

Lanee Butler-Beashel, another UCI product, moved up one spot to

16th overall in women’s windsurfing. She finished sixth and 14th,

respectively, in her two races Saturday, giving her 88 points through

eight races with three more to go.

The USA men’s water polo team, including five UCI products, lost

to Russia, 9-7, Saturday, dropping the Americans to fourth in Pool A

with one game remaining. USA (2-2) needs to beat powerhouse Serbia

and Montenegro (3-1) 11 a.m. Monday in order to advance to the

quarterfinals.

Russia jumped on the board early, getting a score 20 seconds into

the game from Revaz Tchomakhidze 20. Team USA went the other way to

earn a six-on-five opportunity, but former UCI standout Omar Amr’s

catch-and-shoot from four meters hit the crossbar and was controlled

by Russian goalie Nikolay Maksimov.

With Russia leading, 3-0, UCI product Jeff Powers drew an

exclusion on a counterattack to set up an extra-man score from six

meters by Tony Azevedo.

Powers earned another exclusion to set up a goal that pulled the

Americans within 5-3.

UCI product Ryan Bailey’s lone shot was saved by Maksimov, while

former Anteater Dan Klatt had one foul and one steal.