Sexton reflects on the race.
NO MEDAL FOR SEXTON
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Katy Sexton's disappointing Olympics continued when she could only
finish seventh in the final of the women's 200 metres backstroke.
Sexton, the reigning world champion, was tipped as one of Britain's brightest
medal hopes in Athens.
The 22-year-old had the third fastest time in the world before the Games got
under way and was expected to highlight the progress made under national
performance director Bill Sweetenham since the failure to win a single medal in
Sydney four years ago.
But after only managing sixth in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke and
13th overall, Sexton scraped into the final as the slowest qualifier and
never looked like threatening the medals.
She was last with 50m to go before touching in seventh in a time of two
minutes 12.11 seconds, more than three seconds slower than her British record
which she set in winning the world title in Barcelona last year.
Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry took gold in a time of 2:09.19 with Russia's
Stanislava Komarova claiming silver and Reiko Nakamura of Japan the bronze.
Sexton's preparations were disrupted by asthma attacks apparently brought on by
stress and chlorine, but she insisted she had been in good shape going into the
Games.
"I wouldn't say anything has gone terribly wrong," she said. "I've prepared
better than I have any other time but it hasn't worked out the way I wanted.
"I've not found my asthma a problem being here with the smog and everything,
it just hasn't happened like I wanted it to.
"I've enjoyed this more than Sydney, I came here for the right reasons and
that was to win a medal.
"I was very nervous tonight, it's quite hard being the first race of the
evening but it's been a fantastic experience."
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