Julia Smit and Yuliya Efimova rule preliminary rounds of Women’s events - Speedo Grand Challenge
Julia Smit and Yuliya Efimova dominated the preliminary rounds of their Women’s events on the first day of the 2011 Speedo Grand Challenge at William Woollett Aquatic Centre on Friday, May 27, 2011.
The session included the preliminary rounds of the 200m Individual Medley (IM), 100m breast-stroke, 50m freestyle and the 400m freestyle in the Women’s category.
The first event of the session was the 200m IM, where UN-PC/ Stanford’s Julia Smit transpired as the fastest qualifying swimmer of the event, by touching the wall first in 2:14.09 minutes.
The 23-year-old faced a neck-to-neck battle from her fellow swimmer, Katinka Hosszu, who occupied second fastest qualification spot in a time of 2:14.39 minutes. PASA-PC’s Jasmine Tosky stayed only 0.44 seconds away from Hosszu and touched the wall as the third fastest swimmer in 2:14.83 minutes.
Next were the qualifying rounds of the 100m breast-stroke, where UN-CA’s Yuliya Efimova conquered the top qualification spot in the finals, by clocking a time of 1:07.98 minutes. The 19-year-old was comfortably away from her closest competitor, Trojan-CA’s Jessica Hardy, who appeared as the second fastest swimmer in a time of 1:09.29 minutes. They were followed by PASA-PC’s Jasmine Tosky, who completed her swim in the third fastest place, clocking a time of 1:11.51 minutes.
Moments later, Hardy stunned the arena by earning the fastest qualification spot in 25.56 seconds. Smit and Megophias’s Marie-Pier Ratelle followed her into the finals as the second and third fastest sprinter, touching the wall in 25.85 and 26.10 seconds, respectively.
After a few minutes, the crowd enjoyed the stupendous swims of Andrea Taylor, Nicole Chang, Megan Rankin and Katherine Campbell, who were trying to escape each other for the fastest qualification spot.
Chang emerged as the fastest swimmer to enter the finals in the first-half of the race but Taylor overwhelmed Chang’s effort in the third round and posted a time of 4:17.10 minutes to claim the fastest spot. Chang was 1.47 seconds slower and touched the wall for the second fastest spot, producing a time of 4:18.57 minutes.
She was followed by Azot-CA’s Rankin, who clinched the third fastest spot in 4:20.95 minutes. Rankin was almost two seconds faster than her following swimmer, Campbell, who managed to secure the fourth fastest spot in 4:22.20 minutes.
The session concluded after the completion of the Women’s events, whereas, these swimmers will compete with each other in the final rounds of their respective events. The championship will continue for two more days and will conclude after the Men’s and Women’s swimming events on May 29, 2011.
Tags: