GB Adlington Smashes World Record to Clinch Second Gold in Womens 800m Freestyle

by Christina 123 | August 16, 2008 at 12:25 am

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Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington has done it again! Adlington finished the 800m Women's Freestyle inside 2.12 seconds of the world's previous best time. Alessia Fililppi of Italy and Denmark's Lotte Friis claimed silver and bronze respectively.

Adlington became the first British woman to claim gold since Anita Lonsbrough in 1960 with her 400m freestyle victory, and success in the 800m freestyle makes her the most successful British swimmer of the last 100 years.
This is just everything I have ever dreamed of
Rebecca AdlingtonIf that was not enough, she made even more history by smashing the swimming's longest standing world record, set by Janet Evans of the United States in 1989, the year Adlington was born.
Having set a new Olympic record in qualifying for the final, Adlington was favourite to emerge victorious.
She snatched victory with the last touch in winning her first medal at the Water Cube on Monday, but had no such problems on Saturday.
The first 100m saw Adlington pushed all the way by Camelia Alina Potec who, after 50m, turned in the lead.
By 200m the pair were clear of the field and soon Adlington began to pull away from the Romanian.
At the halfway mark, she was in a race all of her own and her rivals had no answer as she stayed under world record time for the entire race, eventually finishing six seconds ahead of her nearest rival.