Summer and Lara Smash Games Records
The Commonwealth Games started off with a bang for our F-Teamers and the wins kept coming across the six days of action in Birmingham. We saw new records set, PBs fall and our swimmers toping the podium with a haul of medals. Here's a recap of the amazing results!
All eyes were on the 400m IM with Canadian F-Teamer tipped to win gold. She didn't disappoint her fans with the 15 year old not only touching the wall first but setting a new Commonwealth Record with a time of 4:29.01, lowering her PB by 0.11 and smashing the previous Games record of 4:31.76. She also broke her own Canadian and World Jr Records, sealing her spot as the fourth fastest women's 400m IM swim in history. All that at only 15.
Having dropped the 200m Butterfly from her program, Summer turned her attention to the 200m IM. Her remarkable freestyle leg (29.81) allowed her to push past Australia's Kaylee McKeown who had a slight lead on her, to win gold with a new World Jr Record time of 2:08.70, a time that would have seen her win a bronze medal in Tokyo.
After a massive five days of swimming Summer finished off her program with the much anticipated 400m Freestyle. Up against Australia's Ariarne Titmus, who had already won gold in both the 200m and 800m Freestyle events, Summer swam a well paced race and finished just behind Ariarne for the silver in a time of 3:59.32. She broke the Canadian Record of 3:59.39 that she set at World Champs just a month ago. There was no rest for the 15 year old as she was chosen to anchor the 4 x 100m Medley Relay just after her 400m silver medal swim, earning herself another silver medal to add to the haul. An amazing end to a massive summer season for Summer.
The swimming world was tuned in for the 50m Breaststroke final where our superstar South African F-Teamer Lara van Niekerk entered the final as the only woman to go under 30 seconds in this event. Wearing her custom made APEX Predator X Lara had a sensational swim touching the wall in 29.73, breaking the Commonwealth Games Record that she had set earlier in the morning. Just behind Lara was England's Imogen Clark who snatched the silver in a time of 30.02. Imogen had an awesome swim in the final, breaking her own 4 year old British record of 30.04.
On the final day of competition 19 year old Lara van Niekerk had her sights firmly set on winning her second gold medal of the Games in the 100m Breaststroke. She didn't hold back, beating her South African teammate and 2018 Comm Games champion Tatjana Shoenmaker by over a second in a new PB of 1:05.47. This new time places her 14th all time fastest ever in the event.
Veteran Australian Dolphin team member Holly Barratt capped off her long course career with a Silver in the 50m Butterfly final, tying with South Africa's Erin Gallagher in a time of 26.05. One of our newest F-Teamers, Harriet Jones from Wales, wasn't far behind in 6th place in a time of 26.20.
In other news, 16 year old Paralympian Izzy Vincent finished fifth in the 100m Breaststroke SB6 event in a time of 1:52.74 and Lucky Patterson placed 6th in the 200m IM SM10 final.
Such an amazing meet from our F-Teamers. Be sure to jump on their socials to congratulate them!