Beijing delivers double delight for D’Orsogna
Swimming Australia
Published: Nov 5, 2012 09:29:29 AM Updated: Mar 19, 2013 09:38:11 AM
Following an Australian domination in the men’s 100m freestyle on day one, the boys almost bagged a second sprint freestyle clean sweep in the 200m freestyle final.
London Olympian Tomasso D’Orsogna again took the gold in 1:43.20 to complete an individual freestyle double following his 100m victory yesterday on night two of the FINA short course World Cup in Beijing.
Sydney swimmer Robert Hurley and South African Olympic gold medalist Darian Townsend couldn’t be split, with the two dead-heating for second in 1:43.50. Townsend spoiled Australia’s hopes of a second sweep of the podium when he relegated Cameron McEvoy to fourth place in 1:44.45.
McEvoy then managed to move up a place in the men’s 50m freestyle, taking the bronze medal in 21.46 behind Trinidad and Tobago short course star, George Bovell (20.98) and American Anthony Ervin (21.19).
Australia’s Kyle Richardson (21.73) hit the wall in fifth with D’Orsogna 0.07 of a second behind for sixth in 21.80.
With such a rich history in distance swimming, Australia is once again making its mark in the men’s 1500m freestyle. Competing at his first senior international event, Mack Horton claimed silver in the grueling 60-lap swim in a new personal best time of 14:47.13..
American swimmer Michael Klueh picked up the gold in 14:39.12 and China’s Weijia Liu was third in 14:52.71. Australia’s Shane Asbury was also in the mix but finished in fourth place with a time of 15:08.06.
Victorian Rachel Goh is staking her claim on the backstroke events taking her total backstroke victories up to ten with her latest win. Goh was too strong for the rest of the field in the 100m backstroke final, stopping the clock at 57.07 with China’s Yanxin Zhou (57.91) and Haihua Cheng (58.27) taking the minor placings.
Goh’s Victorian teammate Grace Loh had to settle for fourth place in 58.28.
Kenneth To added the 100m butterfly title to his winning collection, recording an impressive time of 50.96 to take the gold ahead of China’s Qibin Zhang (51.21) and Kenya’s Jason Duntord (51.34).
London Olympian Chris Wright was fourth in 51.89.
To then had to fight for first place in the men’s 200m individual medley with the top three finishers all hitting the wall within 0.4 of a second.
It was South African Townsend who got the best touch, taking the gold in 1:54.25 with hometown hero Shun Wang securing silver in 1:54.36 and To taking third in 1:54.65.
Fellow Aussie Travis Mahoney stopped the clock at 1:56.17 for fourth place.
Dual Olympian Christian Sprenger (58.06) secured his second silver when he hit the wall just behind New Zealand’s Glenn Snyders in the men’s 100m breaststroke final. Despite a fast final lap from Sprenger, Snyders couldn’t be caught and took the gold medal in a time of 57.96. China’s Shuai Wang finished third in 58.42.
London Olympic finalist Sally Foster (2:19.96) also won her second silver of the meet following a tight race in her pet event, the women’s 200m breaststroke.
Foster was relegated to second place behind Japan’s Rie Kaneto who finished first in 2:19.33 with the bronze medal going to China’s Jingling Shi in 2:23.25.
In the women’s 50m breaststroke final, Sarah Katsoulis (30.68) and Foster (31.21) had to settle just outside the podium in fourth and fifth place.
After taking gold and silver respectively in the 100m breaststroke yesterday, Sweden’s Jennie Johansson was too strong, winning the gold in 30.41.
Ashley Delaney picked up two bronze medals for his efforts in the 50m and 200m backstroke finals. Delaney clocked 23.64 for the 50m and 1:52.18 for the 200m to take the bronze in both events.
Russian Swimmer Stanislav Donnets was also in the top three for both events, taking gold in the 50m backstroke in 23.14 ahead of China’s Xiaolei Sun (23.56) and silver in the 200m backstroke behind Japan’s Yuki Shirai (1:51.04) in 1:52.04
After getting rid of the first race nerves last night, Victorian Kotoku Ngawati collected her first medal of the meet in the women’s 100m individual medley.
Ngawati managed to keep on pace with Katinka Hosszu and Zsuzsanna Jakabos, both of Hungary over the four disciplines finishing in third place with an impressive time of 1:00.27.
Olympic gold medallist Melanie Schlanger just missed out on a medal in the women’s 100m freestyle, hitting the wall in fourth with a time of 53.91. Teammate Kelly Stubbins finished 6th in 53.92.
The Tokyo leg of the FINA World Cup series will start on November 6, for full results go to www.fina.org
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