Cooke steams to 400m freestyle win for England
03 August 2002
England's Rebecca Cooke wins gold in women's 400m freestyle final at the Manchester Aquatics Centre tonight.
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Cooke rejoices after winning gold
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The race between England's Rebecca Cooke and Australia's Elka Graham was a real nail-biter tonight. The support of the home crowd willed Cooke on and she finished in pole position to win the gold medal. She completed the race in a time of 4:09.49. She commented: "I am completely ecstatic, overwhelmed with it all. It didn't feel hard at all. It was comfortable and I felt in control all the way through. I always felt I was holding the others off. Now for the world championships in Barcelona nect year." "I'm really enjoying the Commonwealth Games. The team has been doing fantastically - especially tonight." Australia's Elka Graham grabbed the silver in a time of 4:11.47. She said: "I'm just a little annoyed I didn't win. I felt weird today - the weirdest I've felt in warm-up, but my coach told me not to worry about it. I went out there just to do my best." "I closed my eyes in the first 100 metres, because I didn't want to see who was up with me, and it didn't hurt so much. My room-mate (Brooke Hanson) got silver as well, so I don't think we'll get much sleep tonight." Jamaica's Janelle Atkinson finished third for bronze in 4:13.24.
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