Melissa Franklin and Allison Schmitt tie up for Women’s 200m freestyle gold – Swimming World Cup
American swimmers, Melissa Franklin and Allison Schmitt dictated terms to her challengers and ended in a draw for gold medal of Women’s 200m freestyle final on the primary day of the 2011 Swimming World Cup in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, October 18.
Moscow is the third leg of seven-stop World Cup series organised by Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), which is the international aquatics sport governing body.
Franklin, who qualified as the third finest swimmer into the final round accelerated her efforts in the playoff to join the league of top qualifying swimmer, Schmitt. The 16-year-old Franklin seemed determined on the starting blocks as she aimed towards the title of the event.
She was the first swimmer to leap into the water and she cruised her way towards the wall to complete her first round in 27.49 seconds. She was followed by her compatriot, Schmitt, who remained just 0.13 seconds away and covered the same distance in 27.62 seconds.
The 16-year-old continued her smothering efforts in the next round, but failed to answer Schmitt’s rampant effort as she completed first half of the race in a fastest time of 56.96 seconds against Franklin’s 57.46 seconds.
The 21-year-old Schmitt continued her dominance in the third round of the 200m swim, reporting a time of 1 minute and 25.61 seconds to surpass Franklin’s 1 minute and 26.26 seconds effort.
Franklin geared up her swim in the final round, where she clocked a time of 27.46 seconds as compared to Schmitt’s 28.11 seconds effort and the duo hit the wall with a same timing of 1 minute and 53.72 seconds for gold medal.
They were chased by their team-member, Chelsea Chenault, who remained 3.36 seconds slower than the pair of gold medallists and settled on the podium for bronze medal with a timing of 1 minute and 57.08 seconds.
The crowd went wild with the extraordinary effort of Franklin and Schmitt, who put together a great effort while trying to escape each other for the gold finish.
Tags: