Marieke Guehrer captures ten gold medals at the 2011 Australian University Games - Part 5
Marieke Guehrer continued her thrilling performance on second day of the 2011 Australian University Games as she was heading towards the 100m back-stroke playoff. The champion cemented her place in the hearts of the arena by securing two gold medals of 50m
freestyle and 50m butterfly respectively, and now she was set to impress in the back-stroke discipline.
With two record-shattering performances, Guehrer looked more determined to add another gold medal to her medal count. In addition, with her magnificent qualification effort, she had only two swimmers ahead of her, Grace Loh and Karina Leane, where Loh qualified
as the top finest swimmer and Leane entered the final with a second fastest effort.
Her legendary performance in the freestyle and butterfly events made the arena confident that she will take her rivals down in her upcoming final.
At the start of the event, the 25-year-old hammered her rivals with a forceful push from the wall, which gave her a two-stroke lead over her subsequent swimmer. Her dynamic drive coupled with dolphin kicks provided her a competitive edge and she maintained
her lead over her competitors.
The Melbourne-based student was in top form, as she overpowered her challengers in the first-half of the swim while her team-member, Loh kept chasing her for second position. After the first tumble, Loh sprinted her way and pounced on Guehrer’s shoulder,
but the champion demonstrated her furious efforts and ended her second-half with a negative split.
Guehrer hit the wall with a timing of 1 minute and 04.81 seconds for the gold medal while she was trailed by Loh, who concluded her swim 0.25 seconds after Guehrer, producing a time of 1 minute and 05.06 seconds.
With her astonishing swim, she not only took her sixth gold medal of the championship, but she also stunned Gold Coast Aquatic Centre’s arena by improving the third record of the session. The previous championships mark was held by University of Western
Australia’s Amy Lucas, who won the crown of same event with an effort of 1 minute and 04.89 seconds, in October 2008.
The crowd went wild with the scintillating effort of their beloved swimmer, who devastated the expectations of her rivals in another event. The podium was completed by Karina Leane of Flinders University, who was just 0.69 seconds slower than the silver
medallist, hitting the wall with a third fastest timing of 1 minute and 05.75 seconds.
Guehrer was delighted with her fascinating effort in the dual-lap event, and the swimmer was prepared to bring more to her fans as she was left with only one event of second day’s session, the 4*100m freestyle relay. She was taking part in the relay event
with her team-mates which included Loh, Nicolette Lyttle and Jessica Morrison.
She also expressed contentment over her brilliant efforts, saying that she is looking forward to represent Australia at higher levels of swimming. The veteran seemed very exhaustive after her dominance in the three-day competition, but she also looked very
keen towards catching her seventh gold medal of the event.
The arena was excited at Guehrer’s appearance on the deck for relay event, as they were eager to know if their ideal could dominate the pool for another title.
Continued in Part 6.
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