By Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
ATHENS, Greece:
JANELLE ATKINSON placed sixth in the 200 metres freestyle at the Athens Aquatic Centre yesterday in her last Olympic swim.
Competing in heat three of the preliminaries, Atkinson clocked 2:04.06 to be ranked 30th of the 41 swimmers who entered the event.
The best time in the heats was returned by American Dana Vollmer with 1:59.49 with Costa Rica's Claudia Poll second best on 1:59.50. Poll, gold medallist in the event in Sydney, is just back from a two-year suspension for steroid use.
LATE SURGE
Atkinson was always behind, and although she made a late surge in the last 40 metres, it was not good enough to significantly improve her placing. She was seventh of eight at 50m, seventh at 100m and eighth at 150m.
The winner of the heat, Ukraine's Olena Lapunova, also failed to get to the final. Her time was 2:02.71.
Atkinson said the competition was really tough but she tried her best and was not unhappy with the final time.
"I was hoping for 2:03.0 but 2:04.0 is just as good. Two days ago I was disappointed about the 400m but when I really look back it was a fairly good preliminary swim for me," she said.
Janelle will now relax and watch the other three members of the swimming squad in action.
Tomorrow, Angela Chuck will race in the 100m freestyle, Jevon Atkinson swims in the men's 50m freestyle on Thursday and Alia Atkinson, the women's 50m freestyle on Friday. No Jamaicans are in action today.
SHOT PUT
Meanwhile, Jamaica's national shot put record holder, Kimberli Barrett, left the Olympic Village yesterday along with coach Maurice Westney and Dr. Glenton Smith for the Ancient Olympia Stadium in Ilia, Greece, 275 kilometres south of Athens. The event, the only one scheduled for that Stadium, will be held tomorrow.
The venue hosted all the Olympic Games from 776 B.C. to 393 A.D. This will be the first time in history that women will compete at the Olympia Stadium. The men's event is also on tomorrow at the 15,000 capacity Stadium.
To preserve the site, no permanent alterations were made or even prefabricated structures added. The only additions are temporary throwing circles.
