Leek betters own butterfly world record

Tag : leek

A pair of "immoral" swimming trunks weren't going to stop PeterLeek from winning Paralympic gold at Beijing's Water Cube.
The country's newest swimming sensation capped off a golden firstday for Australia at the Games, bettering his own world record forvictory in the 100m butterfly.
He even did it in a pair of trunks a swimming official advised himwere too revealing.
"A FINA (swimming's governing body) official told me they wereimmoral," said Leek after the race, though he later revised thewording to "immodest".
Leek, 19, said he was unsure how the tight green trunks, which satlow on his hips and stopped at the knees, were offensive, but waseventually able to swim in them anyway.
He did admit perhaps they showed a touch of the "plumber's crack",and said he would consider whether he should wear them again.
Choice of clothing was a minor issue for the cerebral palsy athletein the moments after his win - a remarkable swim of 1 minute 0.95seconds to beat China's Wei Yanpeng and Wang Xiaofu.
Leek had smashed the world record during heats earlier in the day,shaving more than half a second of the previous record, held foralmost two years by Wang.
The Games debutant said a gold medal was panacea to the pain ofcontinual training.
"It's been 18 years of hard training but when you win, it all seemslike it was worth it," he said.
Annabelle Williams and Matt Cowdrey both finished with minormedals.
Cowdrey had been on the hunt for eight Paralympic golds at Beijing- a feat accomplished by US swim star Michael Phelps at lastmonth's Olympics - but was beaten by Hungarian Tamas Sors in the100m butterfly.
To add insult to injury, he beat Cowdrey's world record twice - inthe heats and again in the final.
Meanwhile, Australia's men's basketball team recorded a last-gaspwin over Brazil, scoring in the dying seconds for a 73-72 victory.
The British lead the medal table with four golds and six overall,Australia has two gold, a silver and three bronze while China isthird with two gold, one silver and two bronze.
© 2008 AAP
Brought to you by
When you see news happening: SMS/MMS: 0406 THE AGE (0406 843 243), or us. More