Stars shine at FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Part 3
The gruelling forms of all swimmers in the Men’s 100m freestyle and Women’s 200m freestyle at the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, took the expectations of the crowd to a higher level.
After experiencing furious efforts of all participants in their respective events, the crowd was eager to see the dazzling performance of the world record holder of the 100m breaststroke, Cameron van der Burgh in the Men’s 50m breaststroke.
Van der Burgh, who was expected to dominate the playoff of the shortest breaststroke event, spoiled the party of his opponents by occupying the title. He astonished the crowd with his immaculate start, where he gained a half body length lead over his challengers and sprinted his way towards the wall for the title.
He continued his gruelling efforts throughout the race and surfaced on the finishing blockade for the crown of the discipline by submitting a time of 26.64 seconds. His notable effort remained 1.39 seconds slower form his own world record of 25.25 seconds.
The South African swimmer was extremely pleased with his performance and articulated that he would bring more to his fans by dominating the playoff of the 100m breaststroke.
Nevertheless, the gold medallist remained in a prominent lead over his subsequent rival and teammate, Guilio Zorzi, who cemented his place on the victory stand for silver medal by reporting a time of 26.91 seconds.
Zorzi was followed by the Dutch veteran, Glenn Snyders, who managed to secure third best place in the playoff by tapping the wall with a timing of 27.04 seconds.
Moments later, Jennie Johansson of Sweden became the centre of attention for everyone as she snared gold medal of the Women’s 100m breaststroke. The Swedish swimmer faced strong competition from Japanese star, Fumiko Kawanabe throughout the race but manage to outperform her over the finishing wall for gold medal.
The Swedish swimmer won the hearts of arena by seizing gold medal of the race in a time of 1 minute and 06.27 seconds. Her outstanding effort remained almost four seconds slower from the world record of USA’s Rebecca Soni, who posted an effort of 1 minute and 02.70 seconds in 2009.
She also remained 3.27 seconds apart from the championship record of 1 minute and 03.00 seconds, owned by Leisel Jones of Australia during 2009.
The gold medallist was traced Kawanabe, who stayed half body length slower and secured silver medal of the race by producing a time of 1 minute and 06.62 seconds.
The second position holder was traced by Joline Hoestman of Sweden, who stayed almost a stroke behind and transpired on the wall as third best finisher by clocking an effort of 1 minute and 06.96 seconds.
Johansson expressed happiness over her victory in the 100m breaststroke event and stressed that she had gained much confidence from her victory and would try her level best to continue the same on second day of the tournament.
“It’s good to start the series with a good win, I will be contesting some of the other events so wanted to start well here,” said Johansson.
Johansson added that she is looking forward to compete at the subsequent stops of the World Cup series and bring more to her fans by winning gold medals.
To be continued in Part 4.
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