Allison Schmitt claims Women’s 200m freestyle gold: Day four – US Swimming Olympic Trials
Allison Schmitt claimed gold medal of the Women’s 200m freestyle on day four of the 2012 US Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha on Thursday, June 28.
Schmitt, who won a silver medal in the 200m event at the 2009 Rome World Championships, shattered hopes of her challengers by occupying gold medal of the event.
With her invincible efforts in the four-lap freestyle discipline, she remained comfortably ahead of her rivals and made her way to the finishing wall for first position.
The 22-year-old Schmitt enjoyed a lead of almost two body lengths over her following swimmers and secured gold medal of the discipline in a wonderful time of 1 minute and 54.40 seconds.
With her immaculate efforts, she remained 2.39 seconds faster from Missy Franklin of STARCO, who proved her eligibility for silver medal of the discipline by clocking an effort of 1 minute and 56.79 seconds.
The silver medallist was chased by Dana Vollmer of CAL-PC, who stayed almost one body length apart and tapped the finishing end with the timing of 1 minute and 57.47 seconds for bronze medal.
The bronze medallist was chased by Lauren Perdue of UVAAVA, who remained only one stroke behind and settled on the finishing blockade as fourth position holder by producing a time of 1 minute and 57.75 seconds.
Fifth fastest spot of the event was obtained by Shannon Vreeland of ABSCGA, who remained only 0.15 seconds behind and clocked a timing of 1 minute and 57.90 seconds.
Similarly, Vreeland was trailed by Alyssa Anderson, who snared sixth fastest spot of the race by clocking a time of 1 minute and 58.40 seconds.
Afterwards, the crowd witnessed gruelling efforts of Clark Burckle in the Men’s 200m breaststroke semi-finals. The 24-year-old Burckle, who entered the semi-finals as top fastest swimmer, lived up to the expectations of his fans by sustaining his place in
the second round.
Burckle made a significant improvement in his pace as he made his way into the playoff by posting a time of 2 minutes and 10.01 seconds.
He was trailed by Eric Shanteau of TROJCA, who secured second best place in the playoff by clocking an effort of 2 minutes and 10.14 seconds.
Third finest qualifying position of the event was secured by Brendan Hansen of TXLAST, who remained just one stroke away from overpowering his foregoing finisher and posted a time of 2 minutes and 10.45 seconds.
Subsequently, Hansen was chased by Scott Weltz of MP-PC, who suffered a deficit of 0.54 seconds from his preceding swimmer and entered the final round with an effort of 2 minutes and 10.99 seconds.
The audience was delighted with Schmitt’s gold winning effort while she stressed that she will try to make her fans proud at the forthcoming 2012 London Olympic Games.
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