Michael Phelps’ victory in the Pan Pacific open
Michael Phelps, the best swimmer of the year 2010 so far, took over Nick D’Arcy in a forceful 200 metre butterfly race with the fastest time ever in the world, here in Irvine California on Wednesday the 18th of August.
The 14 time Olympic medallist athlete, Phelps, who was on long break from training said he was generally having a hard time in the contests but this particular one was painful.
Michael was the only one in lead throughout all the turns, and managed to finish the race, still ahead of every other swimmer in 1 minute and 54.11 seconds. However, during the last few metres, he could strongly feel the pressure of the race. Talking to the correspondents after the race he said that when he felt the splash of water from the action of his rival in the next lane, he strongly prayed that he does not lose because he was not feeling the right fitness level.
He worked hard in the pool and was able to hold back those who finished in the second and third places. The runner up to the winner was D’Arcy, the Australian swimmer. D’Arcy made the second spot in a time of 1 minute and 54.73 seconds. Takeshi Matsuda, the Japanese athlete who was third, finished the race in 1 minute and 54.81 seconds.
Cesar Cielo, drifted from his trade mark stroke which was freestyle, towards the 50 metre butterfly, so that he could lead a Brazilian one-two. The swimmer is the 50 metre freestyle Olympic gold medallist. Cielo won the 50 metre Olympic with a time of 23.03 seconds. Those who followed him in the second and third positions were Nicholas Santos with 23.33 seconds and Roland Schoeman in 23.39 seconds. After emerging victorious in the butterfly stroke, Cielo said that he was actually pleased with his performance, even though, it was not his stroke. He further added that if the race is 50 metres, he automatically feels the spark to finish it in the earliest time. He found it particularly surprising that he was able to finish the 50 metre butterfly at Pan Pacific with the shortest time this year.
The fourth finisher was the Australian swimmer Geoff Huegill who made a return in the Pan Pac 2010 after the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The event is considered to be one of the two most celebrated events this year, alongside the recently finished European Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Swimmers from countries apart from the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan are taking part in this event.
The performance of the US swimmers in this particular meeting will determine their place in the national team of the next year’s World Championships. On the other hand, the Australian swimmers who will perform good in this championship will grab a place in the Commonwealth Games scheduled for October this year at New Delhi.
Ryan Lochte, who previously defeated Michael Phelps, was naturally able to hold back the challenge of the South Korean athlete, Park Tae-Hwan who finished second with a time of 1 minute and 46.27 seconds in the 200 metre freestyle. Lochte won the race with a time of 1 minute and 45.30 seconds. Park was the winner of the gold medal in 400 metre freestyle at the Beijing Olympics 2008. He tried hard to win the lead from Lochte and was somewhat successful, half way through the race but the final victory belonged to Lochte.
Winning the 100 metre backstroke, the world record setter Aaron Peirsol made the most of this race with a time of 53.31 seconds. The swimmer had one of the fastest times in the heats and so wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity in this race. During his struggle to win the race, Piersol held off Japan’s Junya Koga who took 53.63 seconds, who finished in the second spot. The third and fourth place finishers were the Australian athlete Ashley Delaney with 53.67 seconds and Japanese swimmer Ryosuke Irie with 53.71 seconds respectively.
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