Britta Steffen earns Women’s 50m freestyle gold: Day four – 2011 European SC Swimming Championships
German freestyle specialist, Britta Steffen dictated terms to her competitors by earning the title of Women’s 50m freestyle on concluding day of the 2011 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Szczecin, Poland on Sunday, December 11.
The 28-year-old Steffen stunned the aquatic crowd with her thrilling performance in the two-lap freestyle event. With her irresistible efforts, she remained slightly ahead of her opponents in the shortest freestyle event.
Steffen showed her urgency towards the finishing end and clinched gold medal of the event by posting a time of 24.01 seconds. Her title claiming effort remained 0.76 seconds behind the World and European record of 23.25 seconds, owned by Marleen Veldhuis
of Netherlands from 2008.
The gold medallist remained 0.10 seconds ahead of her subsequent competitor, Jeanette Ottesen of Denmark, who reached the podium for silver medal by producing an effort of 24.11 seconds. She was trailed by Triin Aljand of Estonia, who was just 0.12 seconds
slower than her preceding finisher and reached the finishing end with an effort of 24.23 seconds for bronze medal.
Sviatlana Khakhlova of Bulgaria and Dorothea Brandt of Germany were the fourth finest swimmers of the event, as they ended their swim with an identical time of 24.28 seconds.
Moments later, the crowd witnessed a commendable effort of Italian relay squad in the Men’s 4*50m freestyle. The Italian team occupied gold medal of the event with a phenomenal effort of 1 minute and 24.82 seconds.
The champion team remained 0.29 seconds ahead of their following team, Russia that reached the medal rostrum for silver medal by submitting an effort of 1 minute and 25.11 seconds. The relay squad of Belgium won bronze medal of the relay event as they ended
their swim with an effort of 1 minute and 25.83 seconds.
Relay teams of Germany and Czech Republic captured fourth and fifth fastest spots of the race by finishing their swims with timings of 1:26.55 and 1:27.03 minutes, respectively.
The championship came to an end after the closure of all listed events whereas the winners collected their accolades at the medal ceremony of the championship.
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