Krayzelburg Was Out of Gas, Hit the Clutch

Lenny Krayzelburg started to cramp near the end of the men’s 200-meter backstroke final Thursday at the Olympic Games at Sydney.

With teammate Aaron Peirsol and Australian Matthew Welsh in hot pursuit, Krayzelburg kept battling.

“You get to the point where you’re trying to move your arms and they’re not moving,” Krayzelburg said. “You’re just going through the motions. You don’t really have any control. Basically, I’m just moving my arms. I can’t control how fast they’re going. They’re just going.”

They kept going well enough for Krayzelburg, of Studio City, to win the gold medal with an Olympic record time of 1 minute 56:76 seconds and become only the third American to sweep the Olympic backstroke events.

Peirsol, a junior at Newport Harbor High, placed second in 1:57.35 and Welsh finished third in 1:57.59.

The Ukraine-born Krayzelburg, who won the 100 backstroke earlier this week, said his work is not finished in Sydney.

“I came in here with the goal of winning the gold in both individual events and I accomplished that,” Krayzelburg said. “Hopefully, on Saturday night, I can put the icing on the cake with a good relay swim.”

Krayzelburg, who turns 25 next week, swims on the U.S. 400 medley relay team.

In one semifinal of the men’s 50 meters freestyle, Anthony Ervin of Valenciaclocked 22:13 to place second behind teammate Gary Hall Jr., whose 22:07 was the fastest time of the day.

“It’s going to be a battle,” Ervin said. “There’s more fast stuff to be seen. My goal is to win, but I’ll take a medal.”

MARCELO ARRUE / CYCLING

The Woodland Hills resident finished sixth in the first heat in men’s Keirin on Thursday. Jens Fiedler of Germany won the heat, followed by Gary Neiwant of Australia and Shinichi Ota of Japan.

Arrue failed to advance to the quarterfinals earlier in the week in the individual sprint event. He lost in the opening round to teammate and eventual gold medalist Marty Nothstein. Arrue later won a repechage race before losing again.

Arrue was part of the U.S. trio that did not advance past the quarterfinals in team pursuit.

CRYSTL BUSTOS and SHEILA CORNELL DOUTY / SOFTBALL

Bustos and Cornell Douty, the cleanup and No. 5 hitters in the U.S. lineup, were a combined 0 for 19 in losses to China and Australia.

Bustos, a shortstop from Canyon High, was hitless in nine at-bats and Cornell Douty, a first baseman from Taft, went hitless in 10 attempts.

Bustos is batting .350 with three home runs, four runs batted in and an .800 slugging percentage.

She is tied for the lead in home runs with Peta Edebone, whose two-run blast off Lisa Fernandez in the 13th inning lifted Australia over the U.S., 2-1.

Cornell Douty, playing in probably her last Olympics, has struck out 10 times in 19 at-bats. She led the U.S. at the Atlanta Games in 1996 with a .393 batting average and nine RBIs.

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Wire services contributed to this report.