Swimmers stun crowd by daunting preliminary rounds: Day one – NSW State Open Championships – Part 1
The initial day of the 2012 New South Wales (NSW) State Open Championships featured daunting efforts of elite swimmers, South Korea’s Park Tae Hwan and Australia’s James Magnussen in Men’s events at Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre on Friday, February 10.
The meet is a three-day competition, providing an opportunity to world-class players to race each other and get better before the forthcoming 2012 London Olympic Games.
The opening session of the tournament included qualifying rounds of 400m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 50m breaststroke, 50m backstroke, 400m Individual Medley (IM) and 200m backstroke in Men and Women’s category.
Tae Hwan proved his mettle in the 400m discipline, while Magnussen remained on fire in the 100m freestyle discipline and secured fastest qualification spot of the race.
The session started with the 400m freestyle, where the Olympic champion, Tae Hwan showed no mercy to his opponents and seized top qualification spot of the event.
Participating in his pet event, Tae Hwan was the crowd’s favourite and he did not disappoint them as he secured top position in the meet by posting 3 minutes and 50.06 seconds. He was followed by David McKeon and Ryan Napoleon, who followed him on the finishing
end for second and third best qualification with timings of 3:50.92 and 3:52.96 minutes, respectively.
The 22-year-old Tae Hwan was hard to overcome, as with his splendid achievement in 400m freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he remained predominant over his competitors. Not only that, the South Korean defended his 400m title at the 2011 World Championships
and with his current form, he is undoubtedly the top contender for gold medal of the 400m event.
Subsequently, Magnussen upset his competitors by claiming top spot of the 100m event. With his sizzling early-season performance, last January, the 20-year-old Magnussen was evidently stronger from his competitors. He took benefit of his form and reached
the finishing end for first qualifying position in a comfortable manner, clocking 49.14 seconds.
He remained prominently away from Cameron McEvoy and Tae Hwan, who engaged each other in a stroke-to-stroke battle for second finest qualification spot of the race. McEvoy remained just a nail away from his closest competitor and ended his swim in a time
of 49.74 seconds while Tae Hwan finished third fastest with an effort of 49.76 seconds.
With his magnificent form in the early 2012, where he posted a strong 48.05 seconds at the South Australian meet in January, Magnussen would easily overwhelm his competitors in the NSW event. Magnussen, who is also the 100m freestyle world champion, is undoubtedly
the top contender for gold medal at his home meet.
Afterwards, the crowd enjoyed a laudable effort of Australian butterfly expert, Nick D’Arcy, who recently recovered from his back and rib problem, dominated the 200m butterfly heats with a solid 1 minute and 59.10 seconds effort. D’Arcy experienced strong
battle from Christopher Wright and John Goo, who tried hard to overpower the returning favourite, but despite of their gruelling efforts, they failed. Wright and Goo entered the final round as second and third best finishers with timings of 1:57.97 and 2:02.76
minutes, respectively.
The 24-year-old D’Arcy, who captured silver medal of the 200m discipline at the 2010 Irvine Championships but failed to rake any medal in 2011 due to his injuries, is undeniably in a strong position to claim the title in final round.
To be continued in part 2
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