In the men’s finals the towering favourites delivered with the utmost ease. World champion Kristof Milak flew above the water to bring down Michael Phelps’ last standing record in the 200m fly, the OR from Beijing 2008, though he looked a bit annoyed for not beating his own WR but a pre-race havoc derailed him from that route. After Tom Dean and Duncan Scott had finished 1-2 in the individual 200m free, world champion Great Britain was a sure bet for the 4x200m relay and they didn’t disappoint – claimed the title with a 3.23sec winning margin. For the first time since 1908, the US missed the podium in this event.
Men’s 200m fly
It was inevitable that there would be two races within this final: one between Kristof Milak and the ’red line’, marking his World record pace, and another one among the other seven swimmers for the silver and bronze medals.
The first contest was decided some ten minutes before the start: that was the time Milak was about to enter the last call room but his swimsuit was torn… That minor accident defined the big things standing ahead of the world champion who had announced his intention to swim a ‘personal best’, obviously, to beat his monstrous 1:50.73 WR. That was his mighty target here and he could not meet it – as he explained, in that very moment he knew the world record was gone.
“There your focus is destroyed and you can no longer get back to the zone” Milak said. “If anything happens to your trunk, goggle, cap just minutes before the race – a swimmer is done. Of course, I’m happy, I don’t want to look dissatisfied… But I wanted more.”
This is how Kristof Milak became arguably the most disappointed Olympic champion here in Tokyo. Despite winning by a mile, not even a smile appeared on his face at the wall. He broke one record though, his 1:51.25 is better than Michael Phelps’ shiny winning effort from Beijing 2008. The greatest Olympian, in fact the title-holder from Rio and sitting here on the media tribune as the pundit for NBC’s live broadcast, soon greeted his successor in an Instagram post, commenting: “Nice swim @swimilak! Amazing to watch ya in person! Amazing last 100m!”
Well, besides the pre-race problems (which, as it had turned out, included being 20m late from warm-up and everything had to be rushed afterwards which led to the suit-problems…), Milak’s performance is still breath-taking. This was the third best time ever in this event, only his winning efforts from Gwangju 2019 and Budapest 2021 remained unmatched. Though he looked to handle this as a loss initially (against the red line), he was in upbeat mood while marching to the victory ceremony and finally could smile and wave like the champions do. Especially when you won your first Olympic gold at the age of 21.
Besides him stood the two extremely happy men, Honda Tomoru from Japan, who had an outstanding finish to claim the second place on lane 8, while Italy’s Federio Burdisso out-touched Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi, bronze medallist from Rio, for the third place by 0.07sec. Full Results
After the victory ceremony, Milak was in more upbeat mood. “It’s great to hold this gold medal in my hand. If you ask how much it weighs… I would tell you that it has exactly the same weight what my family, my coaches and my supporters invested in me. I cannot be any more grateful for them what they have done for me. I hope I was able to give them back something now. The most important that I got my first Olympic gold. So now I can go for the next one, then the next one, then the next one…”
Men’s 4x200m free relay
Having the 200m free Olympic champion, Tom Dean, and the silver medallist Duncan Scott on board, Great Britain’s quartet was set to add the Olympic title to its already magnificent collection featuring all titles on offer since 2017 (two worlds, two Europeans).
For a while the Italians stayed close, and even over the third leg USA’ Zac Apple seemed to hold on with the Brits – but the American’s rocketman (delivered the fastest split in the 4x100m free) virtually sank himself for the last 50m while Matthew Richardson left the field behind. From that point it was GB all the way, Scott further expanded their lead as he delivered a huge 1:43.45 anchor leg to secure a 3.23sec winning margin. They were just 0.03sec shy of the Americans’ shiny suit WR from Rome 2009, but the 6:58.58 is good for a brilliant European record.
The Russians and the Aussies battled out for the silver and Mikhail Dovgalyuk out-touched Thomas Nell by 0.03sec at the wall. Both teams delivered steady 1:45s in all four legs while Apple’s 1:47 cost the US the medal. This event was in the programme since 1908 but the US never missed the podium (apart from Moscow 1980 for the well-known reasons) and they won the last four editions. Here their only chance to maintain the great run would have been a DSQ and in fact the Aussies were close as their third swimmer Zac Incerti produced a –0.03 takeover, but that was exactly the tolerance limit and the review also approved that they could keep their third place.
“That was the best-case scenario” now two-time Olympic champion Tom Dean said. “The 4x2 in Britain has been getting stronger and stronger. Jimmy (James GUY) has been on it for so many years and has seen it progress, I am so lucky to be on the team with him."
"I've been fortunate enough that I've got the Olympic champion (Dean), Olympic silver medallist (Duncan Scott) and a former world champion (Guy) coaching me through. A huge thank you to those guys” said 18 years old Matthew Richards.