Gold over 1500 meters

World record! US swimmer Finke dethrones Yang

Bobby Finke

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

World records number 2 and 3 were set on Sunday at the end of the Olympic swimming competitions in the La Defense Arena in Paris! Both were set by US-Americans. Bobby Finke set one in the 1,500 m crawl, the women's medley relay team the other. Pan Zhanle set the only previous world record in the 50 m pool at these championships in the 100 m crawl. Four days later, on his 20th birthday, he completed the US title winning run over 4 x 100 m medley with China.

No man had won twice en suite over 1,500 m at the Games since Australia's Grant Hackett in 2000 and 2004. Finke has now achieved this. He beat the previous top mark set by China's Sun Yang at the London Games exactly twelve years earlier by 0.35 seconds. Three years ago in Japan, Finke had also won gold in the 800 m crawl, a title that was snatched by Daniel Wiffen later in the week. The first Irish Olympic swimming champion took bronze in the 1,500 m in 14.39.63 minutes, while silver went to Italy's Greogrio Paltrinieri in 14:34.55.

US women's medley relay sets world record
Thanks to Finke's gold medal run, the Americans overtook Australia in the medal standings of the swimming events and impressively secured their lead in the final competition of the championships. In 3.49.63 minutes, Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske shaved 0.77 seconds off the previous world record time set by the USA five years earlier at the Gwangju World Championships. It is the USA's eighth swimming gold, Australia had seven. The Australian women's relay team secured bronze in 3:53.11, 0.12 seconds ahead of China.

China and Pan made history in the medley relay race
In the medley relay, where the Austrian quartet of Bernhard Reitshammer, Valentin Bayer, Simon Bucher and Heiko Gigler finished in twelfth place due to the pre-race out, the home fans were hoping for another title for the French, which would have given Leon Marchand his fifth gold. But the history of this race was written by China and Pan, who completed the final 100 m in an incredible 45.92, beating a US team in this event for the first time in Olympic history. Gold went away in 3:27.46 minutes, silver for the USA in 3:28.01 and bronze for France in 3:28.38.

Sweden's Sarah Sjöström won the women's 50m crawl and the 100m crawl. The almost 31-year-old phenomenon Sjöström was only a tenth over her own world record after 23.66 from the semi-final in 23.71 seconds and, four days after winning the 100 m, secured the fast crawl double as well as her third gold medal overall under the sign of the five rings. The 14-time world champion was unchallenged. Australia's Meg Harris in second place was 0.26 seconds behind and third-placed China's Zhang Yufei was 0.49 seconds behind - small worlds in the crawl sprint.