By guest writer Julia Wilkinson-Minks (2008 & 2012 Canadian Olympian)\t<\/i><\/p>\n
MERSIN, Turkey, June 23. ON the third day of swimming at the 2013 Mediterranean Games in Mersin, Turkey, we saw our first races that included swimmers with a disability. <\/p>\n
In the women's 100-meter freestyle S10 category, Spain's Sarai Gascon Moreno won in 1:03.94, two seconds ahead of teammate Esther Morales Fernadez. Spain saw its second gold medal of the evening in the men's 100-meter freestyle S10 category, with a win from David Julian Levecq Vives in 55.98. <\/p>\n
In the women's 100-meter freestyle, Theodora Drakou, a member of Greece's 400-meter freestyle relay at the London Olympics, won in 55.63. On the men's side, Luca Leonardi of Italy won handily in 48.84, the only swimmer sub 49 seconds. <\/p>\n
Spain was victorious again in the women's 200-meter breaststroke, when Jessica Vall Montero won in 2:27.22, just ahead of Italy's Elisa Celli, who was three tenths behind in 2:27.58. In the men's 200-meter breaststroke, Italy lost another close race, when Panagiotis Samildis of Greece defeated Flavio Bizzarri in 2:12.31 to earn his gold medal. Bizzarri was three tenths behind in 2:12.67. <\/p>\n
In the women's 400-meter IM, Anja Klinar of Slovenia won four seconds ahead of the field in 4:40.49. This time is two seconds off the 4:38 she posted in the heats at the Olympic Games last summer. Klinar also swam in the semi-final of the 200-meter butterfly last summer in London. <\/p>\n
In the men's 400-meter IM, two-time Olympic champion and distance king Oussama Mellouli won handily in 4:15.15. Mellouli won the 1500-meter freestyle at the Beijing Games in 2008 and extended his reign to the open water race in London last summer. Clearly, his 400-meter IM is nothing to scoff at either. <\/p>\n
Italy found its way on top again in the final two events of the evening. In the women's 800-meter freestyle, Italian swimmers Martina De Memme and Aurora Ponsele' were first and second, in 8:33.17 and 8:40.70, respectively. The 800-meter freestyle relay of Damiano Lestingi, Gianluca Maglia, Federico Turrini and Alex Di Giorgio won gold for in 7:19.37. The victorious Italians finished just ahead of France, who placed second in 7:19.79. <\/p>\n
Italy is still way ahead in the medal count, with a total of 33: 12 gold, 16 silver and 5 bronze.<\/p>\n
Julia Wilkinson-Minks is a two-time Olympian for Canada and was a finalist in the 200-meter IM at the 2008 Beijing Games. In 2010, she became Texas A&M's first ever NCAA champion in swimming when she won the 100-yard freestyle. She graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Speech Communication. Julia retired from competitive swimming following the London Olympic Games and now lives in Texas with her husband Shane. <\/p>\n
Follow her on twitter @juliah2o<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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