London showers Downie in gold, while McClure rejoices at third games
Swimming Western Australia
Published: Sep 10, 2012 01:04:55 PM
Australia continued its dominance at the Aquatic Centre over the weekend with Western Australia’s Kat Downie and Jeremy McClure on display in fine form.
On Day 7, Downie displayed her versatility by swapping sprints for distance and lining up for the heats of the women’s 400m freestyle.
Hitting the wall in 4:57.28, Downie qualified 3rd fastest for the night’s final. A gold medalist already at these games, Downie went stroke for stroke with a strong field and held off a last minute surge from her challengers to finish 6th in a phenomenal time of 4:53.59, a three and a half second improvement on her heat swim.
Day 8 of the Games and Kat Downie showed no sign of slowing down. After a seventh place finish in the 50m freestyle, Downie was looking for a podium finish in the 100m freestyle. With a convincing swim in the heats, Downie progressed to the final where she took out fifth position in a fantastic time and personal best of 1:02.34.
The Australian Team continued to shine on Day 9 with the women’s 4 x 100m medley relay team securing an incredible 17th gold medal overall for the swim team. In a thrilling finish to the relay, the team of Cole, Kat Downie, Williams and Freney swam a fantastic race to take gold in the 4x100m medley relay, beating the Brits by just 0.03 of a second.
Jeremy McClure rounded off a successful night with a sizzling swim the men’s 50m freestyle to finish 17th overall in 28.77.
To close out the games, both Downie and McClure featured in respective 100m breaststroke events. Downie finished 12th overall in an impressive 1:27.41, while McClure progressed through to an exhilarating final where he finished his games campaign in 7th place in 1:24.14
Swimming WA congratulates Kat Downie and Jeremy McClure on their outstanding efforts at the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Their achievements are an inspiration to the swimming community and will undoubtedly be talked of for some time to come.
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