导出博客文章RIO DE JANEIRO -- Katie Ledecky is racing herself in the 400-meter
freestyle.Yulia Efimova and the U.S. mens relay team are just glad to have a
shot at a medal.Coming back after anchoring the Americans to a relay silver on
the opening day of swimming, Ledecky nearly broke her own world record in the
preliminaries Sunday, setting herself up as the overwhelming favorite to capture
her first gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.Ledecky posted a time of 3
minutes, 58.71 seconds, actually backing off a bit on the closing lap to
conserve energy for the late-night final. She just missed her mark of 3:58.37
set in 2014.No one is even close to Ledecky. The next-fastest qualifier was
Britains Jazz Carlin, who was more than 4 seconds behind.Thats the easiest its
felt to go under 4 minutes, Ledecky said, barely breathing hard. So that bodes
well for tonight.Efimova heard a smattering of boos at the Olympic Aquatics
Stadium after winning her heat, having only been cleared to compete days before
the games.Revelations of a state-sponsored doping system in her native Russia
led to Efimova being banned from Rio because of a previous 16-month suspension
for doping, not to mention another positive test this year for the now-banned
substance meldonium. That result was placed on hold while world anti-doping
officials conduct further studies on the drug.After appealing their penalties,
Efimova and up to six other Russian swimmers were quietly approved to compete in
Rio. She posted the second-fastest time in the preliminaries at 1:05.79, just
one-hundredth of a second behind American Lilly King.Stopping briefly in the
mixed zone, the reigning world champion answered a single question from The
Associated Press.Well, I dont know what to say, Efimova said, smiling and
shrugging her shoulders. I mean, I was crazy the last half-year and just dont
understand whats going on and everything. Im just happy to be here and Im ready
to race.When pressed on criticism from rival swimmers and coaches, she smiled
and walked away.Meanwhile, the Americans made up for a debacle at last years
world championships by easily qualifying for the final of the mens 4x100
freestyle relay.The team of Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Held, Blake Pieroni and Anthony
Ervin posted the second-fastest time in the prelims at 3:12.38.Russia was the
top qualifier at 3:12.04, setting up what figures to be a thrilling,
four-country fight for the gold medal. Australia and defending Olympic champion
France are also in the mix after qualifying third and fourth.Now, the real fun
begins as the countries break out their big guns for the evening final. The U.S.
figures to come back with Nathan Adrian, Caeleb Dressel and 18-time gold
medalist Michael Phelps, who could be joined by Ervin after the 35-year-old
posted the fastest individual time in the prelims (47.65).Australia rested up
Cameron McEvoy, France has Florent Manaudou in reserve, while Russia can turn to
Vladimir Morozov -- another of the doping-tainted swimmers given last-minute
approval to compete in Rio.The U.S. didnt even qualify for the final of the
4x100 free relay last year at the worlds in Kazan, an embarrassing setback for
the worlds most dominant swimming nation.Thats ancient history, man, Ervin
said.Assuming Phelps joins the relay for the final, as hes done at the last
three Olympics, hell have a good shot to add to his already staggering haul of
18 golds and 22 medals overall.In other preliminaries, Kathleen Baker of the
U.S. was fastest in the womens 100 backstroke, Chinas Sun Yang led the way in
the mens 200 freestyle and Camille Lacourt of France set the pace in the mens
100 back.---Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 .
His work can be found at
http://bigstory.ap.org/content/paul-newberry .
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Throwback . The Dutchmans tenure got off to a poor start when referee
Guido Winkmann awarded a penalty within two minutes for Niklas Starks clumsy
challenge on Alexandru Maxim.DENVER -- A person with knowledge of the situation
says the Denver Nuggets have traded Kosta Koufos to the Memphis Grizzlies and
have also dealt their first-round pick in Thursday nights draft to the Utah
Jazz. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because
the deals hadnt been announced. The Nuggets didnt want to pay another young
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Gobert, whom they selected with the 27th pick, to the Jazz for cash and the 46th
pick, the person said. They also traded Koufos to the Grizzlies for forward
Darrell Arthur and the 55th pick, opening the way for JaVale McGee to start for
them in 2013-14. ' ' '
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