Petter Stymne ousts Matthew Abood in 100m freestyle heats: Day One – Swimming World Cup, Stockholm
Swedish swimmer, Petter Stymne showed his cards to his competitors by overwhelming the effort of Australian veteran, Matthew Abood in the preliminary rounds of Men’s 100m freestyle on the first day of 2011 Swimming World Cup in Stockholm, on Saturday, October 15.
Stockholm is a two-day competition and second leg of the seven-stop Swimming World Cup series organised by international aquatics sport governing body, Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA).
The 28-year-old Stymne earned respect from the crowd by proving his eligibility for the top qualification spot. The Swedish swimmer stunned the aquatic crowd by defeating Abood with a difference of 0.01 seconds in the qualifying rounds.
Abood remained stronger in the initial lap of the swim, where he sprinted his way towards the wall with a timing of 22.94 seconds whereas Stymne completed his first half in 23.03 seconds. The battle continued in the second lap, where Stymne elevated his efforts to skim down the lead of his former swimmer.
Stymne picked up his pace just after the tumble to join Abood for a neck-to-neck swim. With his relentless efforts, he completed his second-lap of the race in 24.92 seconds to post 47.95 seconds for the finest qualification spot in the final rounds, out-touching Abood with a margin of one hundredth of a second.
On the other hand, Abood remained just a nail away from his preceding swimmer and touched the finishing end with a timing of 47.96 seconds to confirm his second fastest berth in the final rounds. The 25-year-old Abood was 0.41 seconds ahead of his following swimmer and Stymne’s team-member, Stefan Nystrand, who secured third fastest qualification spot by clocking a time of 48.37 seconds.
Brent Hayden of Canada and Eamon Sullivan of Australia earned fourth and fifth best qualification spots with timings of 48.47 and 48.64 seconds, respectively.
Stymne was delighted with his top qualifying effort while the top eight qualifying swimmers of 100m event will compete with each other in today’s final to prove their mettle for the title of the event.
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