GREGOR TAIT qualified for the final of the 200m backstroke for the second Olympics running today after narrowly missing out on setting a new British record in the semi-finals.
The 29-year-old lagged behind joint world record holder Ryan Lochte at the halfway point in his semi but a strong second half of the race pulled the City of Edinburgh swimmer into fourth place in his heat and to a time of 1 min 56.72 secs.
Defendi
ng champion Aaron Peirsol set the fastest time in the semi-finals with 1:55.26 just 0.14 secs faster than Lochte
with Austria's Markus Rogan in third.
"That was the aim, to make the final," said Tait. "I didn't really think about what time I needed but to go quicker than yesterday is good and it's only a fraction off my best time so hopefully I can get up again tomorrow morning and go a bit quicker. I have a whole day to rest now."
They say dreams rarely come true, which will be a relief to Tait. He revealed he'd been suffering from restless nights as he prepared for this morning's semi-final.
But he's not dreaming of a medal but something much more sinister. "I'm not getting much sleep, just enough to get me by," he said. "I had a weird dream last night that I was convicted of a murder, I don't know why."
Despite his lack of shut-eye, Tait produced a solid swim to progress to the final as the sixth quickest qualifier.
Tait though won't have it easy after American favourites Peirsol and Lochte, the joint world record holders, qualified with ease. "I'm not thinking about anyone else," he added. "After all the years I've been doing this, you try not to notice what other people do."
Liam Tancock surpassed his own expectations by reaching the 200m individual medley final this morning. The Great Britain backstroke specialist only reached the semi-finals as the 14th fastest qualifier but he hit a new level when it mattered. Although his 1.59.42 time was outside his personal best it allowed him to progress to tomorrow's final as the seventh quickest qualifier.
Michael Phelps will be expecting to land his sixth Olympic gold in the race while Tancock is just trying to have fun.
"I wasn't expected to make the final so I'm really pleased," said Tancock. "It's my last individual event and I want to have a bit of fun and enjoy the experience.
"I went out hard because that's my strength but that means my freestyle is always going to suffer. I've been working hard on improving it but it's not there yet."
Meanwhile, Fran Halsall showed her fighting spirit as she bounced back from relay disappointment to book her place in tomorrow's 100m freestyle final.
But the four-time British champion admitted she was left "drained" by the failure of Britain's 4x200m freestyle relay team, who arrived in Beijing as hot favourites for a medal but failed to make it through their semi-final.
"We had a really good chance of a gold for the team and we had two excellent girls that we were ready to come in for the final," said Halsall, who swum the final leg, just minutes after her 100m freestyle heat.
"I certainly took inspiration from them cheering me on this morning and I'm pleased to make my final just for those girls.
"If I was fresh for the relay it might have been a bit different, my emotions were running high because I hadn't done a 200m for some time.
"I tried my best but it wasn't enough, although it was very hard."
British performance director Michael Scott held his hands up for the fiasco.
In preparation for the final, British chiefs opted to rest Scotland's Caitlin McClatchey from both her 100m freestyle heat and the relay heats, along with 400m gold medallist Rebecca Adlington.
But it all went horribly wrong as the quartet of Jo Jackson, Melanie Marshall, Scotland's Hannah Miley and Halsall failed to qualify as they finished ninth fastest overall. "I take full responsibility for what happened," said Scott. "We've had a great week until this and on paper those four girls should have qualified."
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The full article contains 746 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
