Friday, August 3, 2012 - 6:55am
Delawarean comes up just short in Olympic bid
Updated Friday, August 3, 2012 - 6:01pm
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| VIDEO: Friends and Family watch Gemmell swim in London. |
Delaware native Andrew Gemmell narrowly missed the medal round in the men's Olympic 1500-meter Freestyle swimming finals after finishing 9th in preliminaries Friday morning.
The U.S. Olympic Trials champion started out 6th of 8 in the final heat, but steadily worked his way through the field, outstretching a competitor to finish 3rd.
His time of 14:59:05 was only good enough for 9th overall, about 1.5 seconds behind the 8th place finisher, ending his Olympics after one swim. His time was about 7 seconds slower than his personal best, set during his victory in the U.S. Olympic Trials, but still good enough for his third best ever swim.
Gemmell is the first Delaware Swim Team member to qualify for the Olympics, and his teammates met at the Wiseguys Sports Lounge and Grill in Newark early Friday morning to watch Andrew try to reach the finals.
Kaitlyn Jones, who joined Gemmell at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month, said she thinks Andrew will be disappointed, but "he'll look back on it and be very happy he even got the chance to compete against the best."
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The crowd of 75 teammates, coaches, and parents were cheering him on loudly, and afterwards Kaitlyn said Andrew has had an impact on everyone, including her.
"Everything he's accomplished, he's just inspired me. To see him work that hard every day and get to the Olympics, it's such an inspiration. I hope to be his teammate in four years (in Rio)," says Jones.
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Gemmell, a Wilmington Charter alum, was the only Delaware native to make the U.S. Olympic Team this year.
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