Stars shine at FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Part 7
After the commendable effort of Chad le Clos in Men’s 200m butterfly and alluring performance of Katinka Hosszu in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley (IM), swimmers lined up on the starting blocks for the playoff of the Men’s 400m freestyle.
Dubai being the first stop of FINA World Cup Series was much successful in providing elite action to the swimming fans.
The crowd was delighted to see Kosuke Hagino of Japan and Robert Hurley of Australia on the starting blocks as both swimmers remained pretty close to each other in the preliminary rounds.
Hagino had a considerably quicker start that provided him a competitive edge over his challengers. With his powerful stroke and strong determination, he showed no leniency to his opponents and surfaced on the wall for gold medal by clocking an effort of 3 minutes and 40.77 seconds.
His effort remained considerably slower from the world record of Germany’s Paul Biedermann, who clocked 3 minutes and 32.77 seconds in 2009.
Similarly, Hurley gave a tough time to Hagino but failed to match his pace in the final round and cemented his place on the victory stand for silver medal by producing an effort of 3 minutes and 41.49 seconds.
Following that, Kecheng Wang of China, who qualified as the fastest swimmer into the playoff, failed to sustain his spot and secured bronze medal of the race by producing an effort of 3 minutes and 44.32 seconds.
Moments later, Therese Alshammar of Sweden emerged on the pool deck to defend her title of the Women’s 50m freestyle. Alshammar, who has dominated the sprint events of freestyle and butterfly discipline, looked quite in form and eager to secure the title of her main event.
She faced strong threat from the German swimmer, Britta Steffen, who qualified in the playoff as top fastest swimmer and was ardent to sustain her pace in the final.
Nevertheless, both swimmers had a splendid start and engaged each other in a neck-to-neck race, trying to prove their mettle for the title.
Alshammar’s powerful tumble turn after the first lap placed her marginally ahead of her toughest rival and she acquired the crown of the event. The Swedish swimmer remained just an inch ahead of Steffen and cruised her way towards the finishing blockade for gold medal by reporting a nice time of 24.50 seconds.
Her effort remained 1.23 seconds slower from her own championship record of 23.27 seconds. Consequently, she was 1.25 seconds away from the world record of Marleen Veldhuis of Netherlands, who clocked an effort of 23.25 seconds during April 2008.
Subsequently, Steffen was just a touch slower from the champion and settled on the wall for silver medal by producing a time of 24.57 seconds.
Steffen was followed by Inge Dekker of Netherlands, who remained just an arm stroke away from upsetting her foregoing finisher and earned her way to the podium for bronze medal by touching the wall with an effort of 24.75 seconds.
The Dutch swimmer was followed by Alshammar’s team-member, Michelle Coleman, who remained two strokes slower from overpowering her foregoing finisher and tapped the wall with a timing of 25.23 seconds.
Alshammar was overjoyed with her second victory on initial day of the tournament and collected her accolade after the race.
To be continued in Part 8.
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