Michelle Weber triumphs Women’s 800 freestyle at the 2011 Canet En Roussillon
Michelle Weber of South Africa has claimed the gold medal in the Women’s 800m freestyle category on the initial day of the 2011 Canet En Roussillon.
The South African swimmer completed her distant freestyle swim in 8 minutes and 49.68 seconds to conquer the top spot on the podium for the gold medal. Lara Grangeon of CN Caledoniens stayed almost six seconds away from Weber and pocketed the silver medal
in a time of 8:55.45 minutes. Mie Ostergaard Nielsen of Denmark followed them on the podium for the bronze medal, producing a time of 8 minutes and 56.86 seconds.
In the first round, Weber was the top fastest swimmer as she completed her swim in 1 minute and 04.00 seconds ahead of Nielsen and Grangeon, who touched the wall for the second and third fastest positions in 1:04.18 and 1:04.24 minutes, respectively.
In the next round, Grangeon enhanced her speed and passed the South African swimmer to appear on the wall as the fastest swimmer in 2 minutes and 10.86 seconds. Weber finished her round in the second fastest place, clocking in 2 minutes and 11.53 seconds
against Nielsen’s 2 minutes and 12.15 seconds effort.
Moments later, Grangeon sustained her top spot by overwhelming Weber’s 3 minutes and 18.14 seconds effort, with her timing of 3 minutes and 17.75 seconds. Weber then geared up her swim in the fourth round and reduced her rival’s lead to only 0.14 seconds,
as she clocked a time of 4:25.25 minutes against Grangeon’s time of 4:25.39 minutes.
In the sixth round, the gold medallist gained a lead of 0.70 seconds over Grangeon, touching the wall first in 5:31.87 minutes, as compared to her challenger's 5:32.57 minutes effort. She then extended her lead to almost two seconds and doubled her advantage
over Grangeon in the seventh round of the 800m swim.
The arena’s favourite, Weber, finished her swim with a lead of almost six seconds, posting a time of 8:49.68 minutes.
The championship will continue for one more day and conclude after the completion of all the swimming events in the Men’s and Women’s category.
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