Barnea stays hot in the pool

Swimmer claims Israel's first medal of the Universiade in Belgrade on Wednesday, finishing third in the 50-meter backstroke.

By ALLON SINAI, AP
Guy Barnea 298.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Guy Barnea 298.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Swimmer Guy Barnea claimed Israel's first medal of the Universiade in Belgrade on Wednesday, finishing third in the 50-meter backstroke. The 21-year-old from Omer touched the wall after 25.09 seconds, 20 hundredths of a second slower than the Israeli record he set the previous day. Japan's Junya Koga won the event in a time of 24.63 seconds, with fellow countryman Ryosuke Irie finishing four hundredths of a second faster than Barnea for second. In other news from the water, Michael Phelps qualified fastest for the 200-meter butterfly in his second event at the US national swimming championships. The 14-time Olympic gold medalist touched in 1 minute, 55.36 seconds in Wednesday's preliminaries at the Indiana University Natatorium. Phelps also led the way in the 200 freestyle with the fastest time of 1:46.31. Phelps advanced to both evening finals, when he'll swim for a spot in the world championships later this month in Rome. He holds the world records in both the 200 fly and 200 free. As well, Katie Hoff's post-Olympic struggles continued in the women's 200 free. She was sixth among eight swimmers advancing to the final. Hoff qualified in 1:59.40 - 3.62 seconds off her seed time. She was sixth in the 400 free final Tuesday night.