Stars shine at FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Part 8
The dazzling performance of Kosuke Hagino and Therese Alshammar in their respective events at the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup played a considerable role in elevating the expectations of the crowds.
As the day progressed, the audience commemorated notable efforts of their shining stars that earned their way to the medal rostrum to collect their awards and accolades.
After the Women’s 50m freestyle, Men’s 200m breaststroke attracted the attention of the audience and the finalists of the event were escorted to the starting blocks.
Sean Mahoney of USA, who qualified into the final round as top fastest swimmer, was expected to face intense battle from his following swimmers, Marco Koch of Germany and Daiya Seto of Japan.
Mahoney demonstrated his phenomenal efforts in the first half of the race but managed to match the efforts of his strongest competitors in the second half and ended third.
Koch took the lead over Seto and Mahoney and rushed his way towards the finishing end for gold medal. With his invincible efforts in the 200m discipline, Koch made his way to the finishing blockade for gold medal by clocking an effort of 2 minutes and 05.26
seconds.
His scintillating form remained nearly three seconds slower from the championship mark of 2 minutes and 02.56 seconds, set by Neil Versfeld of South Africa in 2009. Subsequently, he stayed almost five seconds slower from the world record of 2 minutes and
00.67 seconds, made by Daniel Gyurta of Hungary in December 2009.
Koch’s stupendous effort remained marginally ahead of his following swimmer, Seto, who hit the wall with a timing of 2 minutes and 05.72 seconds for silver medal.
He was followed by Mahoney, who remained just an inch behind and seized third best spot on the podium by clocking an effort of 2 minutes and 05.96 seconds.
“It was very hard, the standard here this year is so much higher, so it’s good to win one,” said Koch after his win.
Later on, Chad le Clos once again made his way to the starting blocks for the final of Men’s 50m butterfly. Clos, who accomplished the title of 200m butterfly earlier, looked confident to claim his second win of the evening.
Le Clos had a wonderful start but his efforts were shortly matched by Jason Dunford of Kenya, who gained a slight lead after the turn and sprinted his way to the wall for gold medal by posting 22.77 seconds.
“This was great to give me confidence ahead of the rest of the World Cup, I felt strong and powerful, I didn’t rush my stroke. It was nice to beat Chad, I used to be able to beat him all the time, but he beats me now so it’s good to get one back. He’s swimming
so well. I am really enjoying the World Cup, I love racing with these guys,” said Dunford after his victory.
Dunford remained just a touch ahead of le Clos, who pocketed silver medal of the event by producing a time of 22.86 seconds.
Third fastest spot of the race was obtained by Roland Schoeman of South Africa, who remained 0.08 seconds behind and posted a time of 22.94 seconds.
Le Clos was unhappy with his second finish in the tournament but articulated that he would try hard next time to live up to the expectations of his fans.
To be continued in Part 9.
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