Chelsea Hodges (Griffith University) has claimed Australia’s its fifth medal in the pool on the final night of swimming at the 2019 Napoli Summer Universiade finishing 3rd in the 50m breaststroke.
The health student touched the wall in 31.13 behind Jhennifer Alves of Brazil in first (30.73) and Sarah Marie Vasey of Great Britain (30.81) in second.
“It felt really good racing all those girls and getting my name out there and the experience is good,” Hodges said.
Although the loud and boisterous atmosphere was a distraction the health student persisted.
“Everyone was really loud, which makes it hard to focus, but it was good. It felt really good in the end,” Hodges said with a grin on her face post-race.
The competition overall has been a great experience for Hodges, who came into Napoli looking to test herself.
“I’ve had a really good competition. I came in with a bit of an injury and we weren’t really sure how I was going to swim, but I ended up pulling out some good times, so I am pleased.”
Hodges joins William Yang (Sydney University – gold, 50m butterfly), Moesha Johnson’s (Southern Cross University – silver, 1500m freestyle) , Calypso McDonnell’s (Northwestern University, bronze, 50m backstroke ) and the men’s 4x200 team bronze, Max Carelton (Queensland University of Technology) ), Ashton Brinkworth (The University of Western Australia), Brendon Smith (La Trobe University) and Jacob Hansford (Australian College of Physical Education) as a medallist in the pool at the 2019 Games.
Her bronze is the 91st medal won by a Uniroos swimmer at a Summer Universiade.
More from the pool:
· In the 200m freestyle final Alice Stuart (Griffith University) finished 8th in 2:13.27.
· Brendon Smith (La Trobe University) finished 8th in the men’s 400m individual medley final.
· Mikayla Messer (Griffith University) finished 6th in the women’s 400m freestyle in 4:15.18
· Phoebe Hines (University of Hawaii) finished 13th in the women’s 400m freestyle with a time of 4:19.24.
· Jared Gilliland (Queensland University of Technology) finished 17th in the men’s 400m individual medley semifinal in a time of 4:23.17.
· In the women’s 4x100m medley relay final, the Australian team featuring Calypso McDonnell (Northwestern University), Chelsea Hodges (Griffith University), Alice Stuart (Griffith University) and Julia Hawkins (Monash University) has finished 5th in a time of 4:04.99
· In the final event of the swimming competition, the men’s 4x100m medley relay team of Cameron Tysoe (University of Wisconsin Madison), Grayson Bell (Griffith University), Bowen Gough (Deakin University) and Ashton Brinkworth (University of Western Australia) finished 8th in 3:38.17.
Sailing – It was a big day of sailing today with 11 races taking place. The UniRoos continued their run of good form, sailing in four races and recording results of 1st, 1st, 3rd and 5th. These results see the all-UNSW Sydney team of Tom Grimes, Jessica Grimes, Nicholas Rozenauers and Annelise Sholten ranked in 1st place overall with an average score of 2.77, ahead of Finland in second (3.14) and Singapore 2 (3.54) with two days of sailing still to come.
Water Polo – The men’s water polo team dropped their quarterfinal match against Russia 13-7. Russia came out strong going on a 5-0 run in the first quarter before the UniRoos fought back with four goals in to Russia’s one in the second quarter and even tying it up in the third quarter, but Russia took control in the fourth scoring three more goals to lock in the win. Reilly Townsend (University of Queensland of Technology) led the team in scoring with three goals with no one else scoring multiple goals.
The UniRoos women’s water polo team have gone down to Hungary in an entertaining quarterfinal clash 7-4 to be knocked out of the running for a medal. Australia started the match strongly opening up a 3-1 lead at halftime before Hungary put three goals on the board in the third period to even the game up heading into the final quarter. A further three goals in the final period pushed Hungary over the line, eliminating the UniRoos to the 5th-8th place semifinals. Matilda Kearns (University of Southern California) led the way for the UniRoos scoring two goals, while Brooke McClean (Australian Catholic University) and Sophie Milliken (Griffith University) also got on the scoresheet.
The men play France and the women China in 5th-8th place playoffs on Thursday.
Tennis – The women’s doubles team of Kaitlin Stains (University of Tennessee) and Aleksa Cveticanin (Texas Christian University) fell in the quarterfinals to Chinese Taipei 2-0. This equals the best result by a doubles team at a Summer Universiade, the last being in 2009.
Scott Jones (University of Tennessee) beat Miykhailo Muraviov of Ukraine 2-1 in 6-3, 3-6 (10-7) the consolation pool.
Archery – Remy Leonard (University of Queensland) lost in the round of 16 to Russia A. Bulaev 146-137 after qualifying for the knockout stage in fourteenth. Niamh Jones (University of Adelaide) qualified 37th for the knockout stages and lost to Nur Aina Yasmine Halam from Malaysia 141-132 in the 1/24 elimination around.
In recurve James Gaze (RMIT University) qualified 57th and fell in the first round of 1/48 falling 6-0 to 56th ranked Mateo Santi of Italy. Belinda Maxworthy (Macquarie University) qualified 9th and made it through to the quarterfinals with a score of 620 in the first day of the recurve women’s competition.
Taekwondo – Tamzin Christoffel (Queensland University of Technology) fell in the quarterfinals to Cyprus after beating Japan in the round of sixteen. Presley Johnson (Griffith University) fell to host country Italy in the round of thirty-two.