Marco Koch and Fantine Lesaffre clinch gold medals – Swimming news
Marco Koch of Germany and Fantine Lesaffre of France clinched gold medals in the events of Men’s 200m breaststroke and Women’s 400m Individual Medley (IM) on concluding day of the 2013 French Open Nationals Championship in Vichy on Sunday, July 7.
The crowd enjoyed scintillating forms of all swimmers in their main events while Koch and Lesaffre received a huge round of applause from the crown for their undisputed efforts.
Both swimmers demonstrated their ruthless efforts on final day of the tournament and added a gold medal to their medal tally.
The absence of world record holder, South African swimmer, Cameron van der Burgh put Koch in the limelight for the title. He did not waste any time and made the best use of the opportunity and secured the title by clocking an effort of 1 minute and 01.23
seconds.
The second best finisher was chased by Giacomo Perez Dortona, who was 0.25 seconds slower from his preceding swimmer and tapped the wall with the timing of 1 minute and 01.48 seconds.
Third fastest spot of the event was secured by Italian swimmer, Claudio Fossi, who stayed nearly 0.90 seconds slower and surfaced on the finishing end for bronze medal with an effort of 1 minute and 02.16 seconds.
Subsequently, Lesaffre stifled hopes of her challengers in the playoff of 400m discipline. She remained in a prominent lead over her challengers and emerged on the finishing end for gold medal with the timing of 4 minutes and 46.70 seconds.
The champion was chased by Isabelle Mabboux of France, who was almost five seconds away from her and stepped on the finishing end for silver medal with the timing of 4 minutes and 51.79 seconds.
The second best finisher was chased by German veteran, Kathrin Demler, who was one and a half body length away from her preceding swimmer and touched the wall for bronze medal with an effort of 4 minutes and 53.07 seconds.
In addition, Koch and Lesaffre expressed their desire of continuing the same at the forthcoming world championships while the winners collected medals and accolades after the race.
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