Swimmers shine at the 2012 London Olympics – Part 6
The Olympic record shattering performance of Camille Muffat in the Women’s 400m freestyle on day two of the swimming events at the 2012 London Olympic Games, elevated expectations of the aquatic crowd for the remaining events of the session.
The gruelling efforts of Muffat and Allison Schmitt in the eight-lap freestyle discipline took the expectations of crowd to a higher level and they were expecting more from the finalists of Women’s 100m butterfly.
Being the fastest swimmer in the semi-finals of the double lap butterfly discipline, Dana Vollmer of USA was the most favourite for gold medal. Vollmer was evidently strong for the title but great competition was expected from China’s Ying Lu, Australia’s
Alicia Coutts and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom.
The 24-year-old Vollmer smothered her opponents in the first lap, where she gained a comfortable lead and strengthened her place for top position. With her persistent efforts in the second lap, she took a body length lead over her strongest challenger and
tapped the finishing wall in a newly improved world mark of 55.98 seconds.
Her wonderful pace was chased by Chinese swimmer, Lu, who remained almost one second behind and settled on the podium for silver medal by producing a time of 56.87 seconds. The second position holder was followed by Coutts, who remained marginally slower
from her former finisher and met expectations of her opponents by seizing the third best spot on the podium with an effort of 56.94 seconds.
Similarly, Sjostrom stayed a stroke away from her former finisher and clocked a timing of 57.17 seconds for fourth position.
Following that, the crowd witnessed commendable efforts of French swimmers in the Men’s 4*100m freestyle relay. The French team remained prominent for third position in the first half but with the alluring efforts of Yannick Agnel, who swam the final leg
of the relay, they finished first.
With their unmatchable efforts, the French team outperformed relay squad of USA on the finishing blockade for gold medal with a timing of 3 minutes and 09.93 seconds. On the other hand, the American squad dominated the first three rounds of the race but
failed to match Agnel’s effort in the final lap and posted a time of 3 minutes and 10.38 seconds for silver medal.
The American team was chased by Russian squad that occupied bronze medal of the discipline by reporting a time of 3 minutes and 11.41 seconds.
Moments later, swimmers reached the starting blocks for the final event of the night, Men’s 100m breaststroke, where Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa stifled hopes of his opponents by clinching gold medal of the event in a world record pace.
The 24-year-old van der Burgh remained prominently ahead of his opponent and tapped the finishing wall for gold medal with a timing of 58.46 seconds. His exhausting effort was chased by Christian Sprenger of Australia, who remained prominent for silver medal
of the event with a 58.93 seconds effort.
Third position of the event was obtained by Brendan Hansen of USA, who sprinted his way towards the finishing end with a timing of 59.49 seconds.
The bronze medallist was followed by Daniel Gyurta of Hungary, who was unable to reach the podium as he ended his swim in fourth place by producing a time of 59.53 seconds.
To be continued in Part 7.
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