Misjudged finish costs Mosse gold

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 18

Misjudged finish costs Mosse gold

From

KEVIN TUTTY

| in r,uniuuigu |

A misjudged finish in the 100 m butterfly at the Royal Commonwealth Pool on Saturday evening probably cost - Anthony Mosse a gold medal.

After the final Mosse was disappointed that he had misjudged his final few strokes into the wall and he failed by 0.25 s to grab the gold medal from the Englishman, Andrew Jameson.

“I came home just the way I wanted to,” said Mosse referring to the

final 50m of the race when he made a spirited bid to overhaul Jameson, who set a new Games record for the event, of 54.075.

Mosse’s time, 54.315, was still a personal best, but he was despondent that the final few metres had not worked out the way he planned. “I built up to the wall, and thought that with 25m to go it was mine if I timed the finish right I had been talking to Sash (the team coach, Hisashi Inomata) about it all afternoon, but I didn’t come through with it

U I could see the T-bar coming up on the bottom

of the pool from about five metres out and that’s where I misjudged my finish. I swore to myself because I knew that it was going to be out whether I tried to go long or short Everything was happening so fast I went short and had to kick in.”

Although disappointed with the outcome, Mosse was able . to feel some satisfaction. He had reduced his 100 m personal best in both the heat and final, and he had established a psychological advantage over the Canadian, Tom Ponting, who is likely to be his chief rival in the final of the

200 m butterfly tomorrow. Ponting was bitterly disappointed'at finishing third in thq event and was reluctant to have the traditional photograph of the three ? placegetters taken on the victory lap around the jiool. Mosse hqd qualified second for the final by winning his heat yesterday morning in 54.615, a personal best and national record by o.lls. The 17-year-old Ross Anderson, from Auckland, swam. an inspired race in the last heat to give New Zealand two finalists in the 100 m butterfly.

Anderson’s time of

55.66 s took 1.2 s off his previous best He was not able to reduce it further in the final, but had established himself by his swim in the heats as a world-class butterfly swimmer. Mosse said he knew he was a little behind Jameson through most of the race. “That’s the way we had it planned.” He was pleased with his time but said he felt he had another half second to call on at the world championships in Madrid next month.

“Pm not quite rested as far as speed goes for the Commonwealth’s. It’s difficult when you’ve two

major meets during the summer so you’ve got to swim through but maintain a good performance. “I’m happy to take home a silver but Fm not quite satisfied. It would obviously be nice to take home two golds.” Mosse is feeling more confident because he has reduced his best time in the 100 m butterfly and he said he was sure he would improve on his. best 200 m butterfly time' tomorrow.

There were two good reasons for Mosse to perform well in the 100 m final. In the stand watching were his mother and his first swimming

coach. “My very first coach in Hong Kong flew all the way over here to watch me. He’s an En-‘ gllshman. He was in the Army at the time (when Mosse was nine) and is now a professional swim coach.;? ■

, “He said he was going to come to the Olympics (in Los Angeles) but he couldn’t make it, so he said he would make it up to me now. I’ve had a lot of old memories here. I saw my primary school teacher who taught me when I was eight years old. She’s manager of the bowls team for Hong Kong.”