Beard, Sandeno to Face Old Foe

The last time Amanda Beard and Kaitlin Sandeno competed against Ukrainian swimmer Yana Klochkova, they each earned silver medals in individual medley races at the 2004 Olympic Games; Klochkova took home the golds.

Nearly 10 months later, the trio will race on a different continent and in different races today through Sunday at the TYR Swim Meet of Champions at the Marguerite Recreation Center in Mission Viejo.

Beard, Sandeno and Klochkova are scheduled to swim the 200-meter freestyle Saturday and the 100-meter backstroke Sunday.

Klochkova, 22, won Olympic gold medals in the 200 individual medley and 400 individual medley in 2000 at Sydney, then repeated her titles in both races last summer in Athens. In setting American records at the 2004 Games, Beard finished second in the 200 IM and Sandeno was runner-up in the 400 IM.

Klochkova also will race in the 200 IM and the 200-meter backstroke. Beard will race in the 100-meter freestyle, and Sandeno is scheduled for five other events.

Klochkova and Beard are coming off layoffs. Klochkova’s first meet since the Olympics was last month at the Grand Challenge in Irvine. Beard, the 2004 gold medalist in the 200 breaststroke, last competed at the FINA Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis in October.

In last year’s TYR meet, Beard won the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke races.

About 600 swimmers are expected to take part in the meet, including Olympic medalists Larsen Jensen and Jason Lezak and the Japanese 2005 world championship team.

The meet opens with the 800 freestyle final today at 5 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, preliminary races will be at 9 and finals will be at 5. On Sunday, the preliminaries will be at 9 and the finals at 4.