D'Arcy left to rue missed chance
- 14th August 2008
Nick D'Arcy
AMERICA'S Michael Phelps may have set a world record yesterday morning, but there would have been few cheers – and possibly some quiet tears – from Sunshine Coast swimmer Nick D'Arcy.
Phelps collected his fifth gold medal of the Olympics in the 200 metres butterfly, the event in which D'Arcy would have been representing Australia.
D'Arcy, who was dropped from the Beijing Olympic team after an incident in a Sydney bar the night of the Games trials, was keeping a low profile yesterday.
But his coach Brian Stehr had earlier said he expected his charge to watch the final on television.
The Coast butterfly specialist posted a personal best time of 1:55.10 in the final at the Olympic trials in March.
That performance would have been good enough for him to finish seventh in yesterday's final in Beijing, a fingernail ahead of the eight placegetter, Russian Nikolay Skvortsov (1:55.14).
Had it come in Tuesday's semi-finals, 21-year-old D'Arcy would have qualified sixth fastest for the final.
After the Games, D'Arcy will defend charges of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm on fellow swimmer Simon Cowley – arising from an incident just hours after he secured his place on the Olympic team.
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