Olympians Velimir Stjepanovic and Ivan Lender duelled to near-perfect sweeps at the Hamilton Aquatics’ Dubai Open.
The Serbians put their world-class swimming abilities on display in the two-day meet held at Hamdan Sports Complex recently.
Both claimed victories in three of the four finals they competed in. Their only defeats came at the hands of one another, with Lender holding the edge in the 50 metre freestyle, while Stjepanovic paced the 100m freestyle.
The 50m freestyle was neck-and-neck throughout as Lender’s time of 23.12 seconds was fractions better than Stjepanovic’s time of 23.19 in the preliminaries. The margin was barely wider than the 24.14 by Lender and 24.16 for Stjepanovic in the finals.
The 23-year-old got his revenge in the 100m freestyle, touching in 49.96 to top Lender’s 50.67 after the former finished in 52.15 and the latter placed third in 52.73 during the preliminaries.
Završnica na 400m freestyle. Deluje lagano, ali uopšte nije :) @HamiltonAquatic LC @HamdanSC #VIDEO pic.twitter.com/wPJec4QD9f
— Velimir Stjepanovic (@VelStjepanovic) December 11, 2015
Those were the only events both competed in together, as Stjepanovic also won the 200m freestyle in 1:50.59 and the 400m freestyle in 3:54.31, while Lender was first in the 50m butterfly in 23.98 and the 100m butterfly in 53.40.
Last year’s top finisher for girls aged 16 and over, Lucy Agnew, defended her titles in the 400m freestyle in a time of 4:32.00, the 200m backstroke in 2:17.16 and the 100m backstroke in 1:04.38.
The only event the 17-year-old couldn’t reclaim was the 200m freestyle, in which she came in second to Edith Lingmann’s time of 2:05.71.
In total, the Dubai Open featured more than 400 athletes across 25 teams competing in over 200 races.
For full list of results and timings, visit www.hamiltonaquatics.ae.
