Polyakov Wins Second Bronze at FINA World Championships
10/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Alabama swimmer Vlad Polyakov earned another medal at the FINA Swimming World Championships being held in Indianapolis this week.
The sophomore won bronze in the 200m breaststroke, matching his finish two nights earlier in the 100m breaststroke. The United State's Brendan Hansen took the gold while Australia's Brenton Rickard was second just 2/100ths ahead of Polyakov's 2:08.36.
Representing his native Kazakhstan, Polyakov is in the midst of a great run of races. He finaled in the 100 and 200m breaststrokes at the Athens Olympics and now has a pair of medals at these championships. As a freshman at Alabama, he finished second in the 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships.
Alabama has another big race still to come. Two-time NCAA 200 butterfly champion Stefan Gherghel, will swim the 200m butterfly on Monday. The Romanian native was fifth in that event at this summer's Olympics.
In other Tide flavored results at these World Championships, sophomore Apostolis Tsagkarakis, representing his native Greece, took 25th in the 50m freestyle with a 22.75 while former Tide sprinters Stavros Michaelides and Brendan Ashby were 34th and 36th respectively. Michaelides, representing Cyprus, finished at 23.22 while Ashby, swimming for Zimbabwe, touched at 23.24.
In the 50m butterfly, Gherghel was 25th at 24.71, Tsagkarakis was 28th with a 24.97 while Michaelides was 36th with a 25.38.
Tsagkarakis was 24th in the 100m freestyle, touching the wall at 50.24. Ashby was 35th, with a 51.74. Gherghel was 20th in the 50m backstroke with a time of 26.04 while Ashby's 26.55 netted him 22nd.
