Fullerton adds bronze to Aussie medal tally

 

   

Swimming Australia, July 8, 2015: World Short Course representative Ellen Fullerton has added a fifth bronze medal to Australia’s tally in the women’s 200m individual medley at the 2015 World University Games at the Nambu University Aquatic Centre in Gwangju, South Korea.

The Queensland University of Technology student who finished seventh in the 400m individual medley final on Saturday, had the lead at half way and was still battling for gold with 25m to go, before being swamped by Zhang Sishi of China and Madisyn Cox of the USA. Fullerton clocked 2:13.48 behind Zhang’s 2:21.67. Fellow Queenslander Aisling Scott was 4th in 2:13.67.

Fullerton’s aim was to swim faster than at the trials earlier in the year, something she had already achieved coming into tonight’s final.

“I can into this meet trying to beat the times I did at trials and I achieved that in the heat and the semis. I was pretty stoked to have done a PB (2:12.04) last night and just a little bit off that PB tonight but a bronze medal and I’m really happy with that.” Fullerton said.

“I probably didn’t execute my own race plan, I got a bit carried away with the race but I gave it a good shot. I wanted to try and get in front and stay in front, but it might have hurt me a little, but you learn and it’s something to take away back to training.

Fullerton still has the 200m freestyle to come with heats and semis on Today.

Fresh off her bronze medal winning swim in the women’s 1500m on Monday, Griffith University’s Kiah Melverton finished fourth in the 400m freestyle final in 4:12.92. The winner of the gold medal was Leah Smith USA in 4:05.29 while fellow Australian Jordan White missed a spot in the final by just one place with her 4:19:66.

Victorian breaststroker Jessica Hansen (Deakin University) finished 11th overall in the women’s 200m breaststroke. Hansen clocked 2:29.19 with Aisling Scott finishing in 2:39:80 placing her 25th overall.

Bronze medallist in the 50m butterfly, Holly Barratt (University of WA) returned for the 100m backstroke final. After qualifying eighth and starting from lane eight, Barratt finished eighth in 1:02.37. Canada’s Kylie Masse won the gold in 59.97.

In the men’s 200m butterfly Nicholas Brown (University of WA), who set a personal best of 1:57.08 in the semis, finished sixth in the final last night with another impressive time of 1:57.27. The gold medal was awarded to Russian Evgeny Koptelov in 1:54.79.

In the final event of the night, the 4x200m freestyle team of Ami Matsuo (Ultimo TAFE), Ellen Fullerton (Queensland University of Technology), Jordan White (University of New South Wales), and Kiah Melverton (Griffith University) swam a strong race and after qualifying in sixth improved to fourth in the final with 8:04.92.

In other events, Travis Mahoney (Deakin University) and Jacob Hansford (Australian College of Physical Education) took on the sprinters in the men’s 100m freestyle. Twenty-four-year-old Mahoney finished in 50.26, while Hansford stopped the clock at 50.29 (PB) to finish 13th and 14th overall.

The Queensland University of Technology’s Tianni Gilmour was Australia’s sole representative in the women’s 100m butterfly, her time of 1:02.24 was fifth fastest in her heat three leaving her 28th overall.

The Australian swim team medal tally now stands at 1 gold, 1 silver and five bronze after four days of competition, 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:

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