Andrea Taylor captures Women’s 400m freestyle gold medal - 2011 Speedo Grand Challenge
Andrea Taylor of Trojan-CA has clinched the gold medal of the Women’s 400m freestyle on the initial day of the 2011 Speedo Grand Challenge, taking place at the William Woollett Aquatic Center.
The 29-year-old Taylor sealed the gold medal, by posting a time of 4:14.79 minutes ahead of Azot-CA’s Megan Rankin and Armada-CA’s Nicole Chang, who touched the wall for the silver and bronze medals with timings of 4:16.33 and 4:18.30 minutes, respectively.
Rankin led the race from the beginning, completing her first lap in a time of 30.00 seconds. She was followed by Chang and Taylor, who posted 30.04 and 30.12 seconds, in their first laps. Taylor picked up the pace in the second lap and moved up to top spot,
finishing her swim in 31.95 seconds to post 1:02.07 minutes. Rankin displayed a sluggish swim of 32.09 seconds to post 1:02.09 seconds on the board and was followed by Chang, who posted 1:02.28 minutes in the first round.
In the next round, Rankin once again moved up to first spot by overwhelming Taylor, with a timing of 2:06.65 minutes. Taylor completed her second round in 2:07.00 minutes ahead of Chang, who stood third fastest in 2:07.17 seconds. Campbell followed them
into the second round as the fourth fastest swimmer, posting a time of 2:09.10 minutes.
In the third lap, Taylor enhanced her swim, posting 3:11.66 minutes against Rankin’s 3:11.87 minutes effort. Chang sustained her third fastest spot, by completing her swim in a time of 3:12.81 minutes to keep Campbell at bay, as she clocked 3:15.57 minutes.
The battle continued among the top three swimmers, where Andrea displayed an impressive swim in the final 100 metres of the race, submitting 4:14.79 minutes. The 19-year-old Andrew gained a lead of almost two seconds from Rankin in the final round. Rankin
did the same with Chang and posted 4:16.33 minutes to stay 1.97 seconds ahead of Chang.
The arena applauded to acknowledge the beautiful swims of these swimmers. Taylor was very happy with her swim and intends to excel her performance in future events.
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