Jarrod Poort clinches Men’s 5km gold: Day three – 2012 Australian Open Water Championships
Wests Illawarra’s Jarrod Poort went home swelling with pride as he clinched gold medal of the Men’s 5km discipline on the third day of the 2012 Australian Open Water Championships on Sunday, February 19.
The Australian championships played a vital role in enhancing skills of their national age group open water athletes. With the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games, these championships were of extreme importance as these allowed the swimmers to compete with
each other in their exclusive events.
The 19-year-old Poort, who won bronze medal of the 10km discipline on day two of the championship, elevated his efforts on the third day and showed no mercy to his opponents by claiming gold medal of the event.
With his astonishing efforts, he outsmarted his competitors by a significant difference and their swims looked pretty much pedestrian in front of Poort’s effort. The teenager confronted strong battle from Trent Grimsey of Lawnton and Yasunari Hirai of Japan,
but he succeeded in overpowering their struggles for the crown of the event.
Poort’s forceful efforts in the concluding parts of the race crushed hopes of his challengers and he stepped on the victory stand for gold medal by completing his swim in a fascinating time of 57 minutes and 21.85 seconds.
The gold medallist was trailed by the 23-year-old Grimsey, who managed to prove his mettle for the second best spot of the race. Grimsey remained almost five seconds behind his former finisher and ended his swim in a time of 57 minutes and 26.64 seconds
for silver medal.
Similarly, he was chased by the 21-year-old Hirai, who was just 0.09 seconds slower from his foregoing competitor and submitted a time of 57 minutes and 26.73 seconds.
Other prominent performances included swims of Rhys Mainstone of UWA Uniswim and Sam Sheppard of Surrey Park, who transpired on the finishing end for fourth and fifth positions with timings of 57:29.00 and 57:29.85 minutes, respectively.
In addition, the session ended after the commendable efforts of all contestants of the 5km event while the position holders received awards and accolades for their tremendous struggles after the session.
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