Australian swimmers shine at the 2012 EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships – Part 5
After the scintillating forms of Stephanie Rice, Nick D’Arcy, and Bronte Barratt on fourth day of the 2012 EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships at the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Adelaide, the audience was excited to see the performances of their national stars on fifth day of the tournament.
The fifth day of the Australian nationals featured finals and semi-finals of 200m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, 200m backstroke, and 200m butterfly in Men and Women’s category.
The second session began with the semi-final of Women’s 200m breaststroke, where the fourth best qualifying swimmer of the event, Sally Foster elevated her pace in the second round and snatched first position. The 26-year-old Foster upset her rivals by making a significant improvement in her pace as she qualified into the playoff as fastest swimmer by posting a time of 2 minutes and 27.92 seconds.
Foster’s alluring effort was slightly ahead of Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur’s (FINA) A-Time Qualification Standard of 2 minutes and 26.89 seconds but she was comfortably under the Olympic B-Time Standard of 2 minutes and 32.03 seconds.
The champion was trailed by Taylor McKeown and Sarah Katsoulis, who also booked their spots in the Australian team to the 2012 London Olympic Games as they clocked a combined effort of 2 minutes and 28.61 seconds for silver medal.
Following that, the arena enjoyed a dazzling performance of reigning world champion, James Magnussen, who captured Men’s 100m freestyle gold medal. The 20-year-old Magnussen sent a frightening message to his challengers all over the world as he tapped the wall with the timing of 47.10 seconds. Magnussen’s effort was comfortably under the Olympic A-Time Standard of 48.82 seconds.
He was followed by James Roberts, who stayed just 0.53 seconds behind the gold medallist and hit the wall with an effort of 47.63 seconds for silver medal. The 20-year-old Roberts, who became the Australia’s prime hope for silver medal at the forthcoming Olympics, was followed by Matthew Targett, who ended third with the timing of 48.32 seconds.
Magnussen expressed his happiness after winning the title and said, “I feel pretty confident after that swim, but I'm certainly not going to rest on my laurels and I'm going to do everything in my power to break that world record because I do want to be considered the fastest man in history. I executed everything pretty close to the way I wanted to, [and was] not quite good enough [last night] but I'd definitely give that world record another crack.”
In the meantime, the Australian crowd witnessed mind-blowing swim of Cate Campbell in the semi-final of Women’s 100m freestyle. The 19-year-old Campbell made her coach proud by clocking a blistering time of 53.84 seconds in the second round of the event. Campbell’s effort was easily under the Olympic A-Time Standard of 54.27 seconds while she stayed just one-step away from confirming her place in the national team to London.
Her fastest qualification effort was trailed by Melanie Schlanger, who was just a nail away from Campbell and qualified into the playoff as second best swimmer with the timing of 53.91 seconds. Similarly, Alicia Coutts did not stay much behind as she occupied third best qualification spot of the event by ending her swim in a time of 54.11 seconds.
To be continued in Part 6.
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