Izumi Kato captures Women’s 400m IM gold: Day two – 2011 Swimming World Cup, Moscow
Japanese national champion, Izumi Kato proved his talent to the aquatic crowd by capturing gold medal of the Women’s 400m Individual Medley (IM) on second day of the 2011 Swimming World Cup in Moscow, Russia on Wednesday, October 19.
Moscow is third leg of seven-stage World Cup series, managed by the international aquatics sport controlling body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA).
The 21-year-old Kato outshined her competitors in a ruthless manner. The Japanese swimmer spoiled the party of her competitors in the IM discipline as she gained a significant lead in the first half of the race.
Hali Flickinger of USA remained dominant until the first 100 metres of the event as she posted a time of 1 minute and 02.66 seconds. She was followed by Kato, who completed the same distance in a time of 1 minute and 02.80 seconds.
Subsequently, Kato showed her determination for the crown in the next round and gained a lead of almost 0.50 seconds from her competitor. She clocked a time of 2 minutes and 12.01 seconds to overwhelm Flickinger’s 2 minutes and 12.48 seconds effort.
The 21-year-old went wild in the next two rounds of the short course back-stroke swim, where she extended her lead to about nine seconds, submitting a time of 3 minutes and 27.64 seconds to engulf Flickinger’s 3 minutes and 36.08 seconds effort.
Nevertheless, the American elevated her efforts in the last two rounds of the swim, but she failed to cover the lead of Kato. The Japanese expert concluded his distant IM event in a time of 4 minutes and 34.00 seconds for gold medal. Meanwhile, the American faced stiff competition from Korea’s Seo Yeong Kim, who initiated a neck-to-neck race with her in the final round
Flickinger failed to escape Kim on the finishing end and they both hit the wall in a same time of 4 minutes and 37.66 seconds for silver medal.
The arena was excited to see scintillating efforts of all position holders, while these competitors will compete in the next round of World Cup in Berlin, Germany from October 22-23
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