Agencies
Rio de Janeiro, August 8: Michael Phelps capped an explosive evening of record-breaking and barely concealed needle Sunday by bagging an astonishing 19th Olympic gold medal in the men’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay here Sunday.
Earlier, Adam Peaty ended 28 years of Olympic hurt for Britain’s male swimmers as he romped to gold in the 100 metres breaststroke final, smashing the world record for the second time in two days.
Cheered on by fiancé Nicole and toddler Boomer in the stands, the peerless Phelps again provided the spark, producing a blistering 47.12 second-second leg to overtake France’s Fabien Gilot and set up victory in the 4x100m free.
Nathan Adrian anchored the Americans to a time of 3:09.92 seconds to end French dominance of the event stretching over the past two World Championships and the London Olympics four years ago.
“It was crazy,” said Phelps, competing in his fifth and final Games. “I was standing on the block while Caeleb (Dressel) was coming in and I honestly thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest. “We wanted that race back so badly,” added Phelps, who hugged teammate Ryan Held on the podium as he sobbed tears of joy.
Peaty’s fireworks were sandwiched between two more world records – by Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in the women’s 100m butterfly and prolific American Katie Ledecky, who obliterated her own 400m freestyle mark by almost two seconds.
World Champion Peaty clocked 57.13 seconds, slicing almost half a second off the mark he set in Saturday’s heats to emulate Adrian Moorhouse’s victory in the same event at the 1988 Seoul Games – the last time a British male swimmer won gold.
Title holder Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa took silver in 58.69s and American Cody Miller bronze in 58.87s.
Ledecky, chasing a historic Rio treble in the 200, 400 and 800m free, produced another remarkable swim in the 400m, stopping the clock in an eye-popping 3:56.46s.
Her time was her 12th world record and was almost five seconds quicker than silver medallist Jazz Carlin of Britain. “I was pumped – 3:56 or better, that’s what I wanted,” said the American.
No Swedish woman had ever won an Olympic swimming gold, but Sjostrom ended that streak with aplomb. “It’s the heaviest medal I ever won,” she said after completing a collection of European, world and Olympic titles.
“I knew before the Olympic games that something was missing, I knew no other girls had won an Olympic medal before and I thought maybe it’s time.”
Peaty’s ‘can’t believe’ moment
Many sportsmen say they ‘can’t believe it’ in the moment of achieving their lifetime goal but in the case of Adam Peaty, who posted another world record and won Britain’s first Rio gold Sunday, it seemed like he really meant it.
“I touched the wall and looked around and thought ‘where is everybody’?” Peaty told reporters. “It’s surreal to win it, to go 57.13s and to win GB’s first medal. Honestly, I think you’ll have to ask me about it in two days,” he added.
His statement was hardly surprising as he had just won the Olympic 100 meters breaststroke final with a world record and a remarkable 1.56 seconds ahead of second-placed South African defending champion Cameron van der Burgh.
Peaty’s own 2015 world record of 57.92 seconds was brushed aside with a 57.55 in Saturday’s heats and he was over a second faster in qualifying than anyone else in the final. But he did not sit back and duly reacted fastest to the gun and smashed out another world best of 57.13 seconds.
