Matthew McLean dominates Men’s 200m freestyle gold medal: Day five – 2011 World University Games
Matthew McLean dominated the final of Men’s 200m freestyle and won gold medal of the event on the fifth day of the 2011 World University Games, which took place in Shenzhen, China.
McLean of USA obtained gold medal of the event by submitting a time of 1 minute and 47.44 seconds. The American was just 0.02 seconds away from improving the Game Record of 1 minute and 47.42 seconds, made by Adam James Ritter of USA in 2009. His time was
also 5.44 seconds slower than the world mark of 1 minute and 42.00 seconds, set by Paul Biedermann of Germany at the 2009 World Championship in Rome.
McLean’s title claiming effort placed him 0.34 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Clement Lefert of France, who followed him on the podium for silver medal by reporting in a time of 1 minute and 47.78 seconds. The silver medallist was chased by s****. /> Uchida of Japan, who stayed 1.28 seconds away from Lefert and posted a time of 1 minute and 49.06 seconds.
Nevertheless, the arena witnessed an immense battle between the top two swimmers for the gold crown. McLean produced a fastest time of 25.38 seconds in the first lap to overcome the effort of his strongest rival, Lefert, who clocked a time of 25.65 seconds.
In the second lap, Lefert accelerated his swim and posted a time of 52.78 seconds to gain a slight lead of 0.09 seconds over McLean, who submitted 52.87 seconds on the board.
Then, the French swimmer sustained his fastest spot in the third lap, where he clocked a time of 1 minute and 20.15 seconds as compared to McLean’s effort of 1 minute and 20.73 seconds. Nonetheless, the American showered his expertise in the final 50m of
the swim, where he completed his lap in a fastest time of 26.71 seconds and edged out Lefert on the finishing wall for gold medal.
In the meantime, Matthew Stanley of New Zealand attained fourth finishing spot, with a timing of 1 minute and 49.16 seconds. He was followed by Ryan Harrison of Ireland and Jean Basson of South Africa, who secured fifth and sixth fastest spots, with timings
of 1:49.18 and 1:49.34 minutes, respectively. They were trailed by Ian Konovalov of Ukraine and David Karasek of Switzerland, who settled as the seventh and eighth finishers, with timings of 1:50.38 and 1:50.46 minutes, respectively.
In addition, the crowd was thrilled with the head-to-head swim of the top two position holders, while the winners were awarded accolades after the conclusion of the session.
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