71. 400m Freestyle

Event: 400m Freestyle
Date: 19th March 2015
Location: London Aquatics Centre, Stratford.  
Cost: £4.50 each
Rules:  Competitors swim eight lengths of crawl as fast as possible. Some part of the swimmer must touch the wall at the end of each length and at the finish. Most perform tumble turns, somersaulting in front of the wall and pushing off with their feet.

The Event:

Times:

London 2012 Olympic Gold: 4:01.45, Camille Muffat, France. 
Sarah: 13:00.11
Ellie: 12:33:00

Comments:  

Ellie: The Olympic pool was rammed tonight and I think this helped me to relax as I knew I'd have to negotiate other swimmers and not be able to swim flat out. I dodged some slow breaststrokers, some swimmers swimming depths rather than lengths and the groups gathering at the pool edges. I like the longer distances as there seems less pressure to swim fast. I knew I had time to take my swimming hat off when it was squeezing my head too much, I readjusted my goggles, had a good look around at the other swimmers and on my last lap, picked my swimming cap back up and stuffed it down the front of my swimming costume...

Sarah: Our first Olympic swim for a while, and we chose the busiest time possible to attempt it. After spending ages trying to work out which was the quietest lane, we just dove in and hoped we wouldn't get too much traffic, or create too much of a swim-jam. Our training now starts for the longer swim distances; including the dreaded open-water swim.
On a sad note, our thoughts during this swim were with Camille Muffat; the gold medallist for this event in London 2012, and who was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in Argentina earlier this month.