Kathryn Hoff wins 200m freestyle on day one of the 2011 Eric Namesnik Grand Prix
2008 Beijing’s silver medallist, Kathryn Hoff dominates the Women’s 200m freestyle final on day one of the 2011 Eric Namesnik Grand Prix at Ann Arbor, Michigan. The competition is the third last stop of the 2011 USA Grand Prix Series that will precede the
2011 World Championships in Shanghai.
Fast ST-CA’s Hoff, who qualified as the fastest swimmer into the 200m final with a timing of 2:00.13 minutes, earned the gold medal for the same event with a thrilling improvement of almost two seconds. Hoff touched the wall first in a time of 1:58.24 minutes
ahead of the Una Palo-PC’s Jasmine Tosky and her team member Whitney Myers, who touched the wall in 1:59.60 and 1:59.98 minutes respectively.
Hoff, who already proved her eligibility for the 100m crown by qualifying as the fastest swimmer, completed the first lap of the race behind her rival Tosky, who posted a quickest first lap timing of 27.80 seconds against Hoff’s 27.90 seconds effort. Hoff’s
powerful turn coupled with her beautiful stroke provided her advantage and she out-touched Tosky in the second lap producing a 29.59 effort to post 57.49 seconds for the first 100m of the race.
Tosky completed her second round in 30.08 seconds and posted 57.88 seconds on the screen. Hoff then maintained her lead with a 30.20 seconds effort in the third lap in contrast to Tosky’s 30.77 seconds. Then, the 21-year-old Hoff dominated the final lap
of the race with a timing of 30.55 seconds as compared to Tosky’s 30.95 seconds. Hoff won the gold medal in 1:58.24 minutes and improved her own pool record of 2:00.13 minutes.
The arena witnessed the same between Myers and the Methodist’s Nina Rangelova, who remain involved in a neck-to-neck race throughout the event. Myers completed the first half of the race in 1:29.42 minutes against Rangelova’s 1:29.68 minutes. Rangelova,
despite of her comparable faster final lap of 30.53 seconds than Myers’ 30.56 seconds failed to overcome the lead and finished fourth behind Myers in a time of 2:00.21 minutes against Myers’ 1:59.98 minutes.
Furthermore, the Women’s 100m breast-stroke final had the same intensity among the top three fastest swimmers. Asphalt’s Annie Zhu posted a time of 1:11.17 minutes to earn the gold medal ahead of Una Gsc-FL’s Sarra Lajnef, who touched the wall second in
1:11.63 minutes. Central Bucks’s Allie Szekely followed them on the podium for the bronze medal with a time of 1:11.85 minutes and remained slightly away from her following swimmer Pinheiros’s Tatuane Sakemi, who finished fourth in 1:12.11 minutes.
Both Hoff and Zhu were very excited about their victories, claiming to put more effort at the 2011 Shanghai Championships that will be the biggest event of 2011.
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