US team kicks over this result

ATHENS -- Did Japan's Kosuke Kitajima break the rules when he beat world record-holder Brendan Hansen by 17-100ths of a second in yesterday's Olympic 100-meter breaststroke? Absolutely, insisted Hansen's US teammates, who claimed Kitajima routinely uses the illegal dolphin kick.

"He knew what he was doing -- he was cheating," charged backstroker Aaron Peirsol, after Kitajima had won his country's first gold of the meet. "He takes gold and he was cheating. He's got a history of that."

Kitajima did the same thing when he beat Hansen at last summer's world meet in Barcelona, said freestyler Jason Lezak. "I watched him," Lezak said. "I remember the whole crowd going `Awwwww', when they saw it on the video screen."

Though both Peirsol and Lezak said they saw Kitajima do the dolphin kick again yesterday, the infraction went undetected by race officials, so the US can't lodge a protest. "You can't appeal a judgment call," said US coach Eddie Reese. "Nobody called it. No whistle. No foul."

Kitajima had collected his gold medal ("It feels great, it feels so damn great," he said) and departed before he could answer the charges. And Hansen, who'll have another shot at him in the 200 breaststroke, didn't make an issue of it. "If there's any problem, the officials that are sitting next to me will take care of that," he said. "I'm here to compete. I can only account for myself."

But Hansen, who was irked by Kitajima's raucous celebration in the adjacent lane, vowed that the defeat would only stoke his fire for next time.

"This is a race that either breaks you or makes you, and I guarantee it's going to make me," Hansen said.

JOHN POWERS