Tokyo 2020: Team GB storm to 200m freestyle relay win and deliver another swimming gold at Olympics
BRITAIN’S brilliant 4x200m quartet romped to golden glory to bring home GB’s fourth swimming medal of Tokyo 2020.
Tom Dean, James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott were a class apart as they eased home in 6:58.58, nearly three seconds clear of Russia with Australia in third.
Dean became Britain's first double Olympic gold medallist in swimming since the 1908 Games.
And that Olympics 113 years ago was also the last time Britain won three gold medals in the pool.
While Dean looked to be feeling the strain of his golden feats of Tuesday, Scott’s outstanding final leg saw Gb miss out on a new world record by just 0.03 secs to spark more celebrations.
Britain’s swimming fortunes have been transformed since they picked up just a silver and two bronzes in London, with the remarkable improvement in the relays a massive factor.
Scott was the only change in the team that qualified, replacing Calum Jarvis, but the order was switched significantly, with individual Olympic champ Dean on the opening leg.
The plan was for Dean to establish a commanding advantage over the opening leg.
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Instead, it looked like his exertions on Tuesday had caught up with the Brit, only third behind Kieran Smith of the US and Russian Martin Malyutin.
Guy, though, brought GB back into it with a stunning second leg to hand over a lead of 0.13 secs to Richards, who delivered a superb performance to see Scott starting 1.45secs clear.
It meant Scott, silver medal winner behind his Olympic Village flat-mate yesterday, could swim his own race, which he did.
The Glaswegan swam away from the field to win by a distance, with Guy in particular overcome with emotion.
But Abbie Wood missed out on a medal by a heartbreaking 11 hundredths of a second as her freestyle form deserted her in the 200m individual medal.
Wood, the 22-year-old from Buxton who was second in the European Championships, looked on course for a medal after her specialist breaststroke leg took her up to third and a whisker behind Alex Walsh of the USA and Japan’s Yui Ohashi.
But she could not make a final dash, picked off for third by American Kate Douglass and finishing in 2:09.15 as Ohashi claimed gold for the home nation. Alicia Wilson was eighth.
Aussie ace Ariarne Titmuss completed the second leg of her freestyle hat-trick effort when she came through Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey to add the 200m title to her 400m crown.
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US superstar Katie Ledecky was only third but an hour later she claimed her sixth Olympic gold across three Games in the inaugural 1500m final.
James Wilby made a mockery of his lane eight draw to become the second quickest qualifier for the 200m breaststroke final in 2:07.91 although Ross Murdoch failed to progress.
Alys Thomas scraped into the final of the 200m butterfly but Laura Stephens just missed out, while Jake Whittle’s 100m freestyle bid ended after he finished sixth in his semi in 48.11.
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