At the London 2012 Olympic swimming finals yesterday evening, the French men upset everyone by taking back the 4×100 freestyle Olympic gold medal that they lost in 2008, clocking 3:09.93 with USA in 3:10.38 and 2nd and Russia in 3:11.41 and 3rd, the Aussie ‘weapons of mass destruction’ backfiring to a 3:11.63 and 4th. USA’s Dana Vollmer scorched the women’s 100 butterfly in a new World record of 55.98, China’s Ying Lu 2nd in 56.87 and Australia’s Alicia Coutts 3rd in 56.94.
South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh clocked an impressive new World record of 58.46 in the men’s 100 breaststroke, Australia’s Christian Sprenger 2nd in 58.93 and USA’s Brendan Hansen 3rd in 59.49, van der Burgh touching hearts by paying homage to his late pal Alexander Dale Oen at the finish line, Kosuke Kitajima in 5th missing this chance of becoming 1st male swimmer to win 3 successive Olympic gold medals in the same event. In the women’s 400 freestyle, Camille Muffat (FRA) clocked a new Olympic record of 4:01.45, USA’s Allison Schmitt 2nd in 4:01.77 and GBR’s Rebecca Adlington 3rd in 4:03.01. Australia’s Emily Seebohm was fastest in the women’s 100 backstroke semifinal, China’s Sun Yang in the men’s 200 freestyle semifinal and USA’s Matt Grevers in the men’s 100 backstroke semifinal.
