Marieke Guehrer captures ten gold medals at the 2011 Australian University Games - Part 2
After an eye-catching start in the opening event of the championship, Marieke Guehrer appeared on the starting blocks for the 100m butterfly final. Her record-thrashing performance in the back-stroke discipline stimulated the hopes of her fans, which put
the 25-year-old Guehrer under immense pressure.
Guehrer qualified in the final as the seventh fastest swimmer, where Mel Houghton was the top qualifying swimmer. The intense roaring of the crowd upon the arrival of butterfly finalists on the starting blocks, pressurized all the swimmers.
Guehrer was facing stiff competition from Houghton, Katrina Schieber, Emma Gray, Madeline Van Hunnik and Ashleigh McCleery, whose qualification times were prominently ahead of her.
At the beginning of the event, Gray’s quick response to the start placed her in a nominal lead over her competitors. She remained half a stroke ahead of Guehrer in the first-half of the initial lap, but Guehrer gained a marginal lead over her in the second-half
and started dictating terms to all contestants.
With her outstanding strokes, she started to become prominent for the top position, while University of Sydney’s Gray was engaged in a neck-to-neck competition with her fellow swimmers.
Guehrer’s technique of using long arm-strokes and speedy leg-actions stifled the efforts of her rivals and she kept everyone away from them. With her continued efforts, Guehrer gained a half body length lead over her competitors after the first tumble. Her
prominent lead and gruelling efforts squeezed the hopes of her competitors, while she kept sprinting towards the finishing wall, extending her lead to almost one second over Gray.
Melbourne’s Guehrer clocked a time of 1 minute and 02.35 seconds to finish her butterfly swim. She was followed by 21-year-old Gray, who remained only 1.33 seconds slower and secured the podium for silver medal with a timing of 1 minute and 03.68 seconds.
Similarly, Gray was trailed by McCleery of Griffith University, who remained distinctively away from the silver medallist and secured the victory stand for bronze medal by producing a time of 1 minute and 04.53 seconds.
Houghton was chased by University of Queensland’s Schieber, who ended fourth, hitting the wall in a time of 1 minute and 06.24 seconds.
In the meantime, the crowd was astonished to see the sluggish effort of fastest qualifying swimmer, Houghton, who posted a time almost four seconds slower than her qualification effort and failed to secure any spot on the podium. Houghton, who confirmed
his spot in the final round with a 1 minute and 04.46 seconds effort, clocked a time of 1 minute and 08.64 seconds in the butterfly playoff.
After two gold medals, Guehrer was scheduled to compete in his third and last event of the initial day, Women’s 4*100m Medley Relay. Guehrer took part in the event with her team-members, Grace Loh, Samantha Marshall and Jessica Morrison. Loh was the starter
of the relay event as she was going to swim the back-stroke leg. Marshall was the breast-stroke leg of University of Melbourne, while Guehrer and Morrison were to complete butterfly and freestyle swims, respectively.
University of Melbourne’s relay squad was considered the best team, while spectators were also very excited to see if Guehrer will be able to capture her third gold medal of the session or not.
Continued in Part 3.
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