Gideon Louw wins Men’s 100m freestyle semi-finals: Day four - South African LC Nationals
Gideon A Louw of NTS-NT won the semi-finals of Men’s 100m freestyle on fourth day of the South African Long Course Nationals at the KZN Aquatic-Kings Park Centre in Durban on Thursday, April 19.
The 24-year-old Louw exceeded expectations of his supporters as he went full rampant in the second round of the 100m discipline and earned his way into the final round as top contender for gold medal.
Louw remained prominently away from his competitors from the beginning of the race as he sprinted his way in the first lap of the event with the timing of 22.57 seconds.
His dominating effort was trailed by Darian Townsend of KZNA-KZ, who stayed 0.70 seconds slower from his foregoing finisher and completed his first half of the race by producing a time of 23.27 seconds.
The 27-year-old Townsend was chased by Graeme J Moore of CGA-CG, who suffered a deficit of 0.34 seconds from his former finisher and ended his initial lap of the race by posting a time of 23.61 seconds.
The same continued in second lap, where Louw went on a rampage after the tumble and cruised his way towards the finishing end. With his alluring efforts, he remained remarkably ahead of his following swimmers and touched the wall with the timing of 48.74
seconds to enter the final round.
His alluring effort was trailed by Townsend, who remained marginally behind him and emerged on the finishing blockade as second best finisher with the timing of 49.10 seconds.
Townsend remained nearly 0.40 seconds faster from his subsequent rival, Moore, who managed to qualify into the playoff as third best finisher by touching the wall with the timing of 49.53 seconds.
The 23-year-old Moore was trailed by Leith Shankland of KZNA-KZ, who remained just 0.02 seconds slower from his former finisher and hit the wall with an effort of 49.55 seconds for fourth position.
Furthermore, the arena enjoyed scintillating forms of all participants in the 100m discipline while these finalists will struggle each other in the playoff, where the top three finishers will reach the medal rostrum at the prize ceremony of the championship.
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