Stars shine at FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Part 9
After the commendable efforts of Marco Koch and Jason Dunford in the Men’s 200m breaststroke and 50m butterfly, Men’s 100m Individual Medley (IM) caught the attention of the audience.
With only three events left before the first day of the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup in Dubai concludes, the crowd could not wait to see the thrilling performances of swimming giants in their respective events.
Shortly after the 200m breaststroke, finalists of the 100m IM reached the starting blocks to prove their mettle for the title of the event. Kenneth To of Australia, who qualified as the top contender for gold medal, looked all set to live up to the expectations
of his supporters and dominate the final.
With his quickest response to the start, To gained a marginal lead over his challengers in the initial half and paved his way to the wall for gold medal. With his continuous efforts, To stayed in a comfortable lead over his opponents and emerged on the finishing
end for the crown of the event by submitting a time of 51.43 seconds.
His title claiming effort remained 0.48 seconds slower from the championship mark of Sergey Fesikov of Russia, who touched the wall with an effort of 50.95 seconds in 2009. In addition, To stayed 0.67 seconds away from improving the world mark of 50.76 seconds,
owned by Peter Mankoc of Slovenia from December 2009.
The champion was followed by George Bovell, who stayed nearly half body length behind and touched the wall for second position by clocking an effort of 52.19 seconds. Bovell was traced by Darian Townsend of South Africa, who stayed just two strokes apart
and stepped on the victory stand for bronze medal with an effort of 52.60 seconds.
To was delighted with his form and said that, “I was happy with that, the 100m individual medley is a very dynamic race and I am happy with that time. I love the short course format.”
Following that, swimmers reached the pool deck for Women’s 200m backstroke. Daryna Zevina of Ukraine was considered the top contender for gold medal as she served notice of her talent in the qualifying rounds.
The Ukrainian swimmer showered her expertise in the distant backstroke discipline and clinched gold medal of the event by producing a time of 2 minutes and 05.01 seconds. Her title claiming effort remained nearly five seconds slower from the world record
of 2 minutes and 00.03 seconds, made by Melissa Franklin of USA in October 2011.
The gold medallist was trailed by Dutch swimmer, Melissa Ingram, who suffered a deficit of 0.21 seconds from her and proved her eligibility for second position of the event by reporting a time of 2 minutes and 05.22 seconds.
Ingram was trailed by Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, who stayed 2.45 seconds behind and secured third position of the event by touching the wall with a timing of 2 minutes and 07.67 seconds.
The third position holder was followed by Jenny Mensing of Germany, who stayed comfortably slower from her and emerged on the finishing end as fourth fastest swimmer by producing a time of 2 minutes and 09.16 seconds.
The audience enjoyed ruthless efforts of all swimmers on first day and were excited to witness the swimming action on second day of the tournament.
To be continued in Part 10.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: