Monday, August 16, 2004
TARA KIRK UPDATE -- FINAL
I saw the 100m breaststroke final just about live on the CBC. If you want to wait until you get home and watch it on NBC to know how she did, I'll allow a bunch of blank lines right now so you can scroll past them. Just hit "page down" about three times, it should get you past.
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Tara finished sixth. How did the race go? Well, Luo Xuejuan of China was quick off the start and pretty much blew past everybody. Tara appeared to be second or third up to the 50m split, ahead of the world recordholder Leisel Jones of Australia. Nobody caught Luo from China, who easily got the gold medal. Jones was about even with Kirk with about 10m or so to go, with Tara being around third. I'm not sure if Tara just lost steam or what (wait for the post-race quotes) toward the end. I think she went from third to sixth probably within 2-3m of the wall at the end. It got pretty muddled toward the finish, other than the swimmer from China, who pretty much had the gold from the start. (results)
I'll sort of go out on a limb here and say that Tara will eventually be training for the 2008 Games in Beijing.
It's been something, it really has. Tara has made Bremerton immensely proud, and anybody that's followed this story in any capacity won't forget this anytime soon. Thanks to the CBC, NBC, for airing the races (live or delayed) and reporters Ron Judd (Seattle Times), Allen Schauffler (KING-5 Seattle), and Annette Griffus (Bremerton Sun) for their ongoing coverage.
Lastly, thanks to Tara.
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Tara finished sixth. How did the race go? Well, Luo Xuejuan of China was quick off the start and pretty much blew past everybody. Tara appeared to be second or third up to the 50m split, ahead of the world recordholder Leisel Jones of Australia. Nobody caught Luo from China, who easily got the gold medal. Jones was about even with Kirk with about 10m or so to go, with Tara being around third. I'm not sure if Tara just lost steam or what (wait for the post-race quotes) toward the end. I think she went from third to sixth probably within 2-3m of the wall at the end. It got pretty muddled toward the finish, other than the swimmer from China, who pretty much had the gold from the start. (results)
I'll sort of go out on a limb here and say that Tara will eventually be training for the 2008 Games in Beijing.
It's been something, it really has. Tara has made Bremerton immensely proud, and anybody that's followed this story in any capacity won't forget this anytime soon. Thanks to the CBC, NBC, for airing the races (live or delayed) and reporters Ron Judd (Seattle Times), Allen Schauffler (KING-5 Seattle), and Annette Griffus (Bremerton Sun) for their ongoing coverage.
Lastly, thanks to Tara.
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