Caitlin Leverenz wins Women’s 400m IM gold: Day two - Santa Clara International Grand Prix
Caitlin A Leverenz of California Aquatics won gold medal of the Women’s 400m Individual Medley (IM) on second day of the 2012 Santa Clara International Grand Prix in California on Saturday, June 2.
Santa Clara is the concluding stage of the 2012 USA Swimming Grand Prix Series that gives an opportunity to world-class players to race each other in their exclusive events before the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The 21-year-old Leverenz faced no trouble throughout the distant IM discipline and proved her mettle for gold medal of the discipline. With her alluring efforts, she gained a comfortable lead over her challenger from the start and succeeded in reaching the
finishing wall for gold medal.
With her epic pace, she dominated the first round of the event by submitting a time of 1 minute and 02.72 seconds.
She was followed by Min Zhao of Shanghai Swimming, who stayed nearly two seconds slower and ended her first round with the timing of 1 minute and 04.31 seconds.
The same continued in second lap, where Leverenz experienced strong resistance from her challenger and just managed to secure her fastest spot with the timing of 2 minutes and 16.28 seconds.
Zhao remained only 0.23 seconds slower from her former finisher and hit the finishing end with an effort of 2 minutes and 16.51 seconds.
The third round saw elevated efforts of Leverenz, who extended her lead to almost three seconds and completed her 300 metres of the swim with the timing of 3 minutes and 32.89 seconds.
Zhao stayed nearly three body lengths behind and tapped the finishing blockade with the timing of 3 minutes and 35.72 seconds.
The leading swimmer served notice of her talent in the final lap and captured gold medal of the event with the timing of 4 minutes and 37.13 seconds while Zhao finished second in the discipline with an effort of 4 minutes and 40.67 seconds.
Third position was secured by Andrea M Taylor of Una Stan-PC, who clocked 4 minutes and 46.94 seconds.
Furthermore, the winners received awards and accolades at the medal distribution ceremony of the championship.
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