Arena Elite Team exceloval na MS v Dubaji

Global   sports   waterwear   leading   brand   Arena   is   proud   to   report   a   highly successful showing of its Elite Team swimmers at the 10th FINA World Championships (25m) in Dubai.  

All told the Arena-sponsored athletes garnered 15 gold, 14 silver, and 11 bronze medals in the 40 different events   contested   at   the   Hamdan   bin   Mohammed   bin   Rashid   Sports   Complex   from   December   15th-19th, breaking one world record and nine championship records in the process.

With a near full house of the world’s top swimmers participating, competition was fierce, as exemplified by Rebecca Soni’s narrow 0.01-second victory in the women’s 50m breaststroke.   The 23-year-old American Female   Swimmer   of   the   Year   carried   this   high   performance   level   through   to   both   the   100m   and   200m breaststroke events, which she won in championship record times (1:03.98, 2:16.39), maintaining her recent edge over rival Liesel Jones from Australia.

Multiple   gold   medals   also   went   to   freestyler   Cesar   Cielo   of   Brazil   and   backstroker   Stanislav   Donets   of Russia, with both setting championship records in the 50m and 100m events of their respective disciplines.

Cielo established new marks of 20.51 (50m freestyle) and 45.74 (100m freestyle), and Donets 22.93 (50m backstroke) and 49.07 (100m backstroke).   The Russian then went on to help his teammates earn a silver medal in the 4 x 100m IM relay.   However it was the Russian freestyle team that took top relay honours with their   world   record   in   the   4   x   200m   Freestyle   relay   (6:49.04),   along   with   a   silver   medal   in   the   4   x   100m event.

Tunisian   Oussama   Mellouli   was   also   a   multiple   medal   winner   (gold-1500m   freestyle,   silver-400m   IM, bronze-200m and 400m freestyle), while two other Arena stalwarts split gold and silver medals with their rivals in their two respective events: Swede Therese Alshammar broke the championship record in the 50m butterfly (24.87) and won silver in the 100m event, while Cameron Van Der Burgh of South Africa won the 100m breaststroke in a championship record time (56.80), settling for silver at the 50m distance.  

Three   particular   events,   however,   stand   above  others   as   Arena   “team”   accomplishments:   400m   freestyle, 1500m freestyle, and 200m butterfly.   In each of these races Elite Team members swept the medals, taking gold,   silver,   and   bronze:   400m   freestyle   –   Biedermann,   Lobintsev,   Mellouli;   1500m   freestyle   –   Mellouli, Glaesner,   Gyurta;   200m   butterfly   –   Le   Clos,   Almeida,   Cseh.     In   the   last   of   these,   barely   one-tenth   of   a second separated the gold and bronze medals.   As outstanding representations of world-class performance, the three diamonds of Arena could hardly have scripted it better.