Swimmers shine at the 2012 London Olympic Games – Part 1
The opening day of the swimming events at the 2012 London Olympic Games featured tantalizing swims of all participants from across the globe in their pet events.
The crowd witnessed both stunning and upsetting performances from their favourite stars on first day of the session. The first day of swimming included events of 400m Individual Medley (IM), 100m butterfly, 400m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 4*100m freestyle
relay in Men and Women’s category.
The first event of the session was Men’s 400m IM, where the defending champion and record holder of the event, Michael Phelps disappointed his supporters by narrowly qualifying for the playoff.
The 27-year-old Phelps failed to perform up to the expectations of his followers, as he was unable to secure any spot on the podium. He remained considerably slower from his teammate, Ryan Lochte of USA, who proved his mettle for gold medal of the discipline.
In contrast, Lochte demonstrated his gruelling efforts in the distant IM event and stepped on the victory stand for gold medal with the timing of 4 minutes and 05.18 seconds. His top rated effort remained almost 1.30 seconds slower from the world mark of
4 minutes and 03.84 seconds, owned by Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Lochte was followed by Brazilian expert, Thiago M Pereira, who remained substantially slower from him over the finishing end and finished second in the event with the timing of 4 minutes and 08.86 seconds.
Following that, the crowd saw exhausting efforts of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, who just missed out his second spot on the podium and settled on the finishing blockade with the timing of 4 minutes and 08.94 seconds.
On the other hand, Phelps failed to put his competitors into any kind of trouble as he ended his swim in fourth best place by clocking an effort of 4 minutes and 09.28 seconds.
No doubt, Phelps’ deteriorated form in one of his main events has raised the concern of his supporters for his upcoming battle at the 2012 FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup, later in 2012.
Next event of the night was Women’s 100m butterfly semi-finals, where Dana Vollmer continued her smothering efforts and qualified into the final as top contender for gold medal.
The 24-year-old Vollmer emerged as the fastest swimmer as she hit the finishing end with an effort of 56.36 seconds. With her commendable efforts, the American swimmer remained nearly half second faster from her subsequent competitor, Alicia Coutts of Australia,
who qualified into the playoff as second fastest swimmer with the timing of 56.85 seconds.
Similarly, the Australian swimmer was chased by Jeanette Ottesen Gray of Denmark, who remained 0.40 seconds slower from her foregoing finisher and hit the finishing wall as third fastest swimmer with the timing of 57.25 seconds.
Similarly, Ottesen Gray remained 0.02 seconds faster from Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who proved her mettle for fourth finest qualification spot of the event by submitting a time of 57.27 seconds.
The Swedish player was followed by Claire Donahue of USA, who remained 0.15 seconds behind and surfaced as the fifth fastest swimmer into the payoff by reporting an effort of 57.42 seconds.
Vollmer received massive admiration from her fans, as she was just one-step away from securing the title of her pet event at the biggest stage of sports.
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