William Copeland captures Men’s 50m freestyle crown – 2011 Santa Clara International Invitational
William Copeland of California Aquatics captured the 50m freestyle crown on the third day of the 2011 Santa Clara International Invitational.
The international meet is the concluding stop of the 2010-11 USA Grand Prix Series, which paves the path for elite swimmers to warm themselves up before the upcoming 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, during July.
The 25-year-old Copeland snagged the title of the event in a wonderful time of 22.69 seconds. His time was almost two second slower than the world record of 20.91 seconds, set by Brazil’s Cesar Cielo at the 2009 Rome World Championships. He was also 1.29
seconds slower from improving the American mark of 21.40 seconds, made by Cullen Jones of USA in 2009. In addition, Copeland remained only 1.55 seconds slower from challenging the US Open record of 21.14 seconds, made by Cielo in 2009.
The gold medallist was 0.12 seconds faster than the second finisher, STAN-PC’s Alexander Coville. The 22-year-old Coville appeared on the finishing wall as the silver medallist, by clocking in a time of 22.81 seconds. They were followed by Swim Mac Carolina’s
Josh J Schneider, who occupied the podium for the bronze medal, with his irresistible effort of 22.92 seconds.
Nicolas C Oliveira of Tucson Ford Deal finished his swim in the fourth position, as he posted a time of 23.01 seconds. He edged out his following competitor, David H Dunford of STAN-PC, by 0.07 seconds. Dunford produced a time of 23.08 seconds to secure
the fifth fastest spot into the final.
Cullen A Jones of Swim Mac, who qualified in the finals with a timing of 23.11 seconds, showed no improvement in his performance and touched the wall in a same time of 23.11 seconds to tie for the sixth position with Roy-Allan S Burch. The eighth spot was
secured by Graeme J Moore of California Aquatic, who posted in a time of 23.16 seconds.
The session concluded after the scheduled final event, while the arena will enjoy one more day of aggressive swimming at the championships.
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