Swimmers shine at the 2012 London Olympics – Part 7
The audience enjoyed dazzling form of Cameron van der Burgh in the 100m breaststroke discipline on second day of the swimming events at the 2012 London Olympic Games and everyone was excited about the next day’s swimming events.
The third day of swimming events featured races of 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 200m Individual Medley (IM), 100m backstroke, and 100m breaststroke in Men and Women’s corner.
The opening event of the session was Women’s 200m freestyle semi-final, where Bronte Barratt of Australia, who qualified as the fastest swimmer into the semi-finals, lived up to the hopes of her followers by achieving the same in second round.
The 23-year-old Barratt devastated hopes of her strongest competitors, USA’s Allison Schmitt, France’s Camille Muffat, and Italy’s Federica Pellegrini by surpassing them over the finishing end for first position.
She faced tough competition from Schmitt in the four-lap freestyle discipline but with her continuous efforts, Barratt made her way to the wall for fastest qualification spot with a 1 minute and 56.08 seconds effort.
Her notable pace placed her marginally ahead of her strongest rival, Schmitt, who showed her urgency towards the finishing end as second best swimmer by reporting a time of 1 minute and 56.15 seconds.
The American swimmer was followed by French veteran, Muffat, who remained 0.03 seconds apart proved her mettle for third fastest qualification spot of the discipline by reporting a time of 1 minute and 56.18 seconds.
Muffat was trailed by world record holder and defending champion, Pellegrini, who remained nearly half a second behind and tapped the finishing blockade with a timing of 1 minute and 56.67 seconds for fourth place.
Fifth fastest spot of the event was secured by Veronika Popova of Russian Federation, who remained slightly away from her former finisher and touched the wall with a timing of 1 minute and 56.84 seconds.
Following that, the semi-finalists of the Men’s 200m butterfly came to the starting blocks to prove their eligibility for fastest qualification spot.
Dinko Jukic of Austria dominated the qualifying round of the event and thus, he was expected to do the same in semi-finals. Nonetheless, the 23-year-old Jukic failed to match invincible efforts of Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda, South Africa’s Chad le Clos, China’s
Chen Yin, USA’s Michael Phelps, and Tyler Clary.
The 28-year-old Matsuda stifled his challengers on the finishing end with his top fastest time of 1 minute and 54.25 seconds to enter the final round. His incredible pace remained just a touch faster from the South African swimmer, le Clos, who covered the
equivalent distance in a second best timing of 1 minute and 54.34 seconds.
Le Clos was followed by Yin, who stayed only an inch away from overpowering his foregoing finisher and sprinted his way towards the finishing end as third fastest swimmer with a timing of 1 minute and 54.43 seconds.
Chen was followed by defending champion, Phelps, who tapped the wall as fourth best finisher with an effort of 1 minute and 54.53 seconds while Clary ended fifth in the event by posting 1 minute and 54.93 seconds.
Clary was chased by Jukic, as he failed to sustain his pace and completed his race in sixth best place by touching the wall with a timing of 1 minute and 54.95 seconds.
To be continued in Part 8.
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