By John Lohn
\nPhotos by Peter H. Bick<\/p>\n
MONTREAL, Canada, July 29. THE Olympic champion got the job done. Rallying during the last 50 meters, Australia\u2019s Jodie Henry claimed gold in the 100-meter freestyle on Friday behind a performance of 54.18. While the swim was well off her world-record time of 53.52, it easily bested the opposition and further enhanced the reputation of the Aussie star.<\/p>\n
Last summer, Henry built her portfolio to impressive heights on the Olympic stage in Athens, as she blasted her competition in the 100 free and anchored a pair of gold-medal winning relays. Here, she turned back a stellar field that included teammate Alice Mills and the United States\u2019 Natalie Coughlin. The American-record holder, Coughlin shared the silver medal with France\u2019s Malia Metella, as both swimmers touched in 54.74.<\/p>\n
The United States\u2019 Amanda Weir took fourth place with a mark of 54.77, her slowest swim of the three rounds. Weir popped a 54.49 in the prelims and went 54.61 in the semifinals, times that would have landed her a silver medal in the final. Still, the teenager from Georgia is a bright spot on the American scene and should anchor the U.S. 400 medley relay.<\/p>\n
Leading at the 50-meter mark and under world-record pace, the Netherlands\u2019 Marleen Veldhuis faded to fifth place in 54.90, finishing just ahead of Mills, who touched the wall in 54.92. The seventh and eighth spots, respectively, were occupied by Greece\u2019s Nery-Mantey Niangkouara (54.93) and Germany\u2019s Daniela Gotz (55.27). <\/p>\n
The performance of Mills was a huge disappointment for the star-studded Aussie women's team. The 18-year-old had been in sensational form coming into this meet and was expected to fully challenge her training partner Henry tonight on the back of her world leading 53.96 this year. However, the effects of being struck down by a fever on arrival in Montreal has obviously drained her resources this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Lohn Photos by Peter H. Bick MONTREAL, Canada, July 29. THE Olympic champion got the job done. Rallying during the last 50 meters, Australia\u2019s Jodie Henry claimed gold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n