Adlington claims gold in Women's 400m Freestyle

Britain's Rebecca Adlington made a sensational late surge to take Olympic gold in the women's 400m freestyle.The Women's 400m Freestyle was one of most intense events that spectators at the Water Cube witnessed on Monday morning.

Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain took gold in the Women's 400m Freestyle with a time of 4:03.22, beating the "Female Phelps," Katie Hoff (4:03.29) of the United States, who came in second. Joanne Jackson, also from Great Britain, won bronze with a time of 4:03.52.


The Mansfield 19-year-old left it late to overtake America's Katie Hoff and become Britain's first female Olympic swimming champion for 48 years.

She pipped Hoff, who led throughout, by just seven 100ths of a second, winning in four minutes and 3.22 seconds.

Adlington was joined on the podium by team-mate Jo Jackson, who also staged a late rally to grab bronze behind Hoff.

The British pair paced their race to perfection, reaching 100m and 200m in sixth and eighth place respectively.

Just over half a second separated the field at the halfway point, with Adlington reaching 300m in fifth and Jackson just ahead in fourth.

Hoff looked to have a built a decisive lead and was half a length ahead with 10m to go, but Adlington powered up the final 50m to win it at the wall and become the first British woman to claim gold since Anita Lonsbrough won the 200m breaststroke in 1960.


Adlington and Jackson are also the first British women to win medals in the Olympic pool since Sarah Hardcastle's silver (400m freestyle) and bronze (800m freestyle) in Los Angeles in 1984.

Jackson's third place in a time of 4:03.52s meant Team GB eclipsed their entire medal haul in the pool from Athens 2004 in one race.

In Greece, Britain won two bronze medals, with Stephen Parry (200m butterfly) and David Davies (1500m freestyle) both making the podium.

A thrilled Adlington said she was disappointed with her time but added: "We are both so happy to have two British girls on the podium. We just tried to ignore the times and race the final.

"I don't think either of us are natural sprinters, we don't do the 100m free so we are naturally suited to the back half of the race.

"We didn't panic when we were a little bit behind. I didn't see anyone past Katie, I didn't know what was going on.

"I couldn't see what there was on the other side of the pool, I saw Katie and just tried to catch her."

Adlington added: "I don't think either of us expected it and especially a gold and a bronze, it's absolutely amazing.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. I'm just over the moon."

At the Olympics four years ago, where Britain's 30 medals was the country's best tally (aside from the boycotted 1984 Games) since Paris in 1924, the squad had to wait until day seven for their first gold (won by cyclist Chris Hoy).

It is day three in Beijing and Team GB already have two golds, Adlington building on cyclist Nicole Cooke's thrilling win in the women's road race on Sunday.