James defends medley crown in dramatic dead-heat
Swimming Australia, July 7, 2015:Defending Champion from the 200m individual medley at the 2013 World University Games, Justin James (ANU) put it all on the line in the final last night at the Nambu University Aquatic Centre in Gwangju, South Korea, grabbing the gold in a dramatic dead-heat.
James was stroke for stroke into the wall with USA swimmer Joshua Prenot, with the pair stopping the clock in a time of 1:58.38 to share the top spot on the podium. The time was a new personal best for James and ranks as the eighth fastest time in the world this year.
Creating history and becoming the first Australian swimmer to defend a University Games title, the 22-year-old said he was willing the wall to come at the finish.
“Just get on the bloody wall, that’s what I was thinking,” James said. “I knew it would come down to the final leg.”
“It’s the fastest I’ve been in two years and this sets me up really well for next year and the Olympic trials.”
Fellow Australian Travis Mahoney finished fifth.
With just the one bronze medal from the opening two days, the Australian team opened the floodgates on the medals last night, picking up an impressive total of five medals.
James’ was joined on the podium on night three with a silver to Jack McLoughlin in the men’s 400m freestyle, and a bronze each to Kiah Melverton (W 1500m free), Ami Matsuo (W 100m free) and Jacob Hansford (M 200m free).
Melverton was the first to add to the medal tally with an impressive performance in the women’s 1500m freestyle. The Griffith University student knocked eight seconds of her previous personal best (that she set in the heats) to pick up her first international medal.
“My plan was just to get in and race really. I knew the other girls would be out fast so I tried to stick with them for as long as I could then do my own thing,” a thrilled Melverton said.
With the 4x200m, 400m and 800m freestyle events still to come, Melverton will be another medal chance in her preferred 800m event.
Next up onto the podium was 19-year-old Jacob Hansford (ACPE) coming from seventh with a lap to go, to snatch the bronze in the 200m freestyle in 1:48.29 with gold to Reed Malone (USA) in 1:47.15.
In the women’s 100m freestyle final, former world championship representative Ami Matsuo stormed home from lane eight to make her way onto the podium in third place with a time of 54.94 with gold to Shannon Vreeland of the US in 54.39.
In the final event of the evening, and after finishing fifth in the 800m freestyle earlier in the meet, 20-year-old McLoughlin finished just a touch outside top spot in the men’s 400m freestyle. Swimming a personal best time of 3:48.88, McLoughlin secured the silver medal behind Great Britain’s Jay Lelliott.
In other finals action, Jessica Hansen finished fifth overall in the women’s 100m breaststroke while Nicholas Schafer will miss a spot in the men’s 200m breaststroke final by 0.01 of a second after finishing 9th overall.
In the semi-finals, Nicholas Brown clocked a personal best time to qualify eighth into the final of the men’s 200m butterfly with Keiran Qaium finishing 12th overall.
While Ellen Fullerton and Aisling Scott will battle it out for a place on the podium in the final of the women’s 200m individual medley after taking third and fourth place respectively after the semis.
The Women’s 100m backstroke will see Holly Barratt take eighth place into the final with Hayley Abood 14th overall.
The Australian swim team medal tally now stands at 1 gold, 1 silver and four bronze with heats to continue this morning.
For a full Day Three swimming wrap click here
For a wrap of all other Day Three action click here
The 2015 World University Games run until Tuesday, 14 July, information about the event can be found here: http://www.gwangju2015.com/
Issued on behalf of Swimming Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager
Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director
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