Kyle Richardson wins Men's 100m freestyle title: Day one – 2011 Swimming World Cup, Beijing
Kyle Morgan Richardson of Australia won the title of Men's 100m freestyle on opening day of the 2011 Swimming World Cup in Beijing, China on Tuesday, November 8.
Beijing is the sixth junction of seven-stop World Cup series, scheduled by Federation Internationale De Natation (FINA), which is the international aquatics sport managing body.
The 24-year-old Richardson qualified as the fastest swimmer in to the 100m freestyle playoff. Richardson faced strong battle from Haiqi Jiang of China and Chad Guy Bertrand Le Clos of South Africa.
The Australian, who clocked a time of 48.11 seconds in the qualifying round, made a considerable improvement of almost one second to strengthen his place as the fastest finisher.
Richardson emerged as the fastest swimmer in first lap of the swim, where he completed his first half of the race with a spectacular 22.69 seconds effort. The Australian was trailed by Le Clos, who remained 0.33 seconds slower than Richardson and covered the same distance with a timing of 23.02 seconds.
Similarly, 20-year-old Jiang remained 0.70 second away from the South African and ended his initial half with a timing of 23.72 seconds.
In the next round, Le Clos geared up his efforts to escape Richardson on the finishing end but the South African failed to cover the lead by just 0.01 second.
The Australian completed his second half of the race in a time of 24.69 seconds and posted a time of 47.38 seconds for gold medal. He was trailed by Le Clos, who concluded his second half of the swim in a time of 24.37 seconds to report 47.39 seconds for silver medal.
With his outshining efforts, Le Clos remained 0.61 seconds ahead of Jiang, who stepped on the podium for bronze medal by hitting the wall in the time of 48.00 seconds.
The arena went wild with the outperforming efforts of Richardson, who clinched the gold medal by sustaining his finest spot in the 100m freestyle final. Furthermore, the winners were invited on the medal rostrum for their eye catching efforts after the completion of the session.
Tags: