Piper takes breaststroke gold

04 August 2002

Jim Piper grabbed the gold medal for Australia in a closely contested men’s 200m breaststroke final.

Jim Piper powers to gold

The 20-year-old from Sydney finished with a time of 2:13.10, just .24 of a second faster than South Africa’s Terence Parkin, who took silver. Canadian Michael Brown (2:13.82) took the bronze.

Afterwards Piper said: “I wasn’t very happy after the 100m breaststroke, and the time in this wasn’t that great, but it was good enough to get a medal, and that’s good enough. It’s what I’ve been training for."

"Now I have got to get ready for the 4x100m medley relay – that was a good omen.”

Brown, who finished third, commented: “I just missed the Canadian record. It would have been good, but I’ve dropped two seconds anyway at this meet. The 100m breaststroke was a best time, and that boosted my confidence."

“I knew it would be a hard race tonight, but I always had a medal in mind.

“People have good and bad days, and maybe the Canadian team has not done as well as we ought to have done, but I’ve had to just keep my head and concentrate on my performance.”