Alena Akexeeva - Peggy Liang tie for Women’s 50m butterfly title: World Deaf Swimming Championships
Alena Akexeeva of Russia and Peggy Liang of United States ended in a tie for the gold medal of Women’s 50m butterfly category, on the third day of the 2011 World Deaf Swimming Championships on Tuesday, August 9, in Coimbra, Portugal.
The swimming event is a seven-day long course championship, being scheduled by the international aquatic sport’s governing body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA).
Akexeeva and Liang displayed their exceptional efforts in the single-lap butterfly swim and earned the title of the event, by reporting in a same time of 29.77 seconds. With their title claiming efforts, both swimmers remained 0.28 seconds slower than improving
the Deaf Championship mark of 29.49 seconds, set by Alexandra Polivanchuk of Sweden in Taipei, during 2007. Their timing was also 0.61 seconds behind the Deaf World Record of 29.16 seconds, made by Pernilla Kile of Sweden in 2009.
Akexeeva, who had a considerable good start when compared to Liang, was joined by her following swimmer in the second-half of the swim, where both of them struggled hard to escape each other for a title finish. Despite their efforts to oust each other, both
ended their swims in a same time for the gold medal.
Nevertheless, the battle was not confined among the duo of gold medallists only, as the crowd also enjoyed the commendable swims of Peggy De Villiers of South Africa and Katsiaryna Eramtsova of Belarus, who also hit the finishing wall in a same time for
third position. With their bronze claiming effort, the duo remained just 0.34 seconds behind the gold medallists and posted a same time of 30.11 seconds.
They were followed by Hannah Fitton of Great Britain, who surfaced as fifth finest swimmer, with a timing of 30.48 seconds. Later, Ayaka Fujikawa of Japan and Polivanchuk earned the sixth and seventh fastest spots, with timings of 30.56 and 30.66 seconds,
respectively. Anastasiya Filipchyk of Belarus settled as the eighth finest swimmer in a time of 30.75 seconds.
The event is being considered as the toughest event of the championship so far, while the competition is scheduled to conclude on August 13.
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