Missy Franklin and Matthew Grevers conquer 100m backstroke gold: Day three – Austin Grand Prix
Missy J Franklin of Colorado Stars-C and Matthew C Grevers of Ford Aquatics-AZ conquered top positions in Women’s and Men’s 100m backstroke respectively, on final day of the Austin Grand Prix at Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Sunday, January
15.
Austin is the second leg of 2011-12 USA Swimming Grand Prix Series, which is a seven-stage event.
The 16-year-old Franklin went on a rampage in the two-lap backstroke event. With her unimaginable strength, she was the only swimmer to post a sub 1 minute effort in the event. She reached the top of podium by clocking an astounding effort of 59.92 seconds
for gold medal.
Her eye-catching performance remained 0.11 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, Rachel K Bootsma of Aquajets Swim Team, who transpired on the finishing wall for silver medal by completing her swim in a time of 1 minute and 00.03 seconds.
The 18-year-old Bootsma remained just one stroke away from Georgia Davies of BSS. The 21-year-old Davies remained just 0.64 seconds slower than her former finisher and hit the wall with an effort of 1 minute and 00.67 seconds for bronze medal.
After a while, the spectators came across a magnificent effort of 26-year-old Grevers, who claimed gold medal of the Men’s 100m backstroke final. Grevers remained nearly half a second ahead of his toughest competitor, David E Plummer of MTKA-MN and clocked
a time of 53.55 seconds for gold medal.
Subsequently, Plummer remained 0.47 seconds slower than the champion and surfaced on the finishing end with a second best effort of 54.02 seconds. The third position of the race was secured by Michael Fred Phelps of North Baltimore, who remained just a nail
away from overwhelming his former finisher.
The 26-year-old Phelps remained 0.07 seconds slower than Plummer and posted a time of 54.09 seconds for bronze medal.
The arena was stunned with Phelps’s bronze finish in his third best event as he specialises in freestyle and butterfly discipline. In addition, the podium finishers were invited on the victory stand for their commendable efforts in the backstroke discipline
at medal ceremony of the championship.
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