Olympics: Adlington claims Britain's first-ever women's freestyle gold

Monday, 11 August 2008

BEIJING - Rebecca Adlington claimed Great Britain's first-ever individual women's Olympic freestyle gold medal with a stunning victory in the women's 400-metres freestyle at the Beijing Games on Monday.

The 19-year-old English swimmer, competing in her first Olympics, out-touched American Katie Hoff at the wall to win in four minutes 03.22 seconds.

Hoff looked set to pinch the gold medal when she sprinted clear at the 300m but Adlington, trailing by 1.5 seconds at the last turn, wore her down in the final 50m for a sensational win.

Joanne Jackson added the icing to the British victory by grabbing the bronze medal and both hugged each other in an embrace over the pool ropes celebrating the unexpected victory.

Adlington went into the final eighth-ranked in the world, but left Italian world record holder Federica Pellegrini (fifth) and French world champion Laure Manaudou (eighth) in her wake in one of the great British Olympic swimming triumphs.

Sarah Hardcastle had come closest to victory in the Olympic event finishing second behind American Tiffany Cohen at the 1984 Los Angeles.

June Croft finished with bronze in that final and Catherine Gibson took bronze at London in 1948.