Four-time Olympic Medalist Sandeno Wins University Games Gold

Friday, August 10th 2007, 7:49 am

By: News On 6

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Four-time Olympic medalist Kaitlin Sandeno of the United States added a World University Games swimming gold to her collection Friday, winning the 200-meter individual medley.

A former world record holder as part of the U.S. 4-X-200 relay team that won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Sandeno finished in a Games-record time of 2 minutes, 12.13 seconds.

Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine, a former world record holder in the 400 individual medley, was second in 2:13.15. Klochkova held the previous Games mark of 2:13.32 set in 2003.

The two dueled throughout the race before Sandeno, competing in her first University Games, pulled away on the last lap. Svetlana Karpeeva of Russia was 1.2 seconds behind Klochkova to take bronze.

``It was a little bit of a double whammy,'' Sandeno said of winning the race and improving on Klochkova's record. ``I wanted to break 12 (seconds) but I'll take it.''

It was her first international medal since the 2004 Olympics.

``I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things,'' said Sandeno, who could swim in three more races here, including the 400 individual medley.

The United States picked up its second swim gold of the night when the American men won the 4-X-100 freestyle relay in 3:16.06, more than 2 1-2 seconds ahead of second-place Canada.

The Americans have three golds overall at the games, all in the pool. The first came Thursday when the U.S. women's team won the freestyle relay over the same distance.

In other swim finals Friday, Canadian Mackenzie Downing won the women's 100-meter butterfly in 58.88 seconds, Japan's Aya Terakawa took gold in the women's 50-meter backstroke and Germany's Britta Steffen won the women's 100 freestyle gold.

Earlier, Russia took over the overall gold medal lead with four thanks to the accuracy of its shooting team.

On the second full day of medal events, Russia's 50-meter pistol team of Leonid Ekimov, Alexey Gnidchenko and Andrey Brayko won gold with a score of 1,658 points. Ekimov won gold on his own in the individual competition.

The United States rebounded from a big loss against Lithuania to beat another men's basketball favorite Friday.

The Americans, represented by the University of Northern Iowa, defeated Angola 84-26 to even their record at 1-1 in preliminary play.

On Tuesday, Lithuania beat the Americans 97-63 in a game in which the U.S. never threatened to control, trailing 32-10 after the first period. On Friday, it was a different story, with the U.S. leading Angola 23-5 after the opening quarter.

Jordan Egiseder led the Americans on Friday with 16 points, while captain Jared Josten added 13.

In 18 World University Games, the United States has won 13 gold medals in men's basketball while posting an overall record of 125-7.

U.S. coach Ben Jacobson said it was a case of his team getting used to the conditions.

``The game is so different than the college game, and Lithuania was our first experience in the international format,'' Jacobsen said. ``Having one game under our belt in international play, and coming out to a physical game with Lithuania, we were much more ready to play today.''

The American women, represented by the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, lost its first basketball game after two straight wins. Russia, led by Evgenia Belyakova's 24 points, won 78-42.

The American men's volleyball team won its second straight match, beating Sweden 25-18, 25-21, 25-21.

American head coach Alan Knipe said his team, many of whom only practiced together for the first time a week ago, did a good job of adjusting during the match.

``We struggled to deal with the higher set _ it was slower than what were used to,'' Knipe said. ``But overall, the guys are starting to get comfortable playing with each other.''

Elsewhere at the games Friday, a senior doping control official said he expects advanced testing to yield drug cheats.

``There is tremendous pressure for athletes to excel, especially ahead of Beijing Olympics next year,'' Dr. Lawrence Rink, chairman of FISU Medical Commission, told The Associated Press.

``I am certain there will be positive tests ... there always are, unfortunately.''

Rink said the games' Doping Control Service would conduct around 650 blood and urine sample tests _ compared with 400 tests in 2005 _ for some 9,000 athletes participating in the event that is held every two years.