Tokyo (AFP)
The Chinese Shun Wang was crowned Friday in Tokyo Olympic champion in the 200m medley, an event long dominated by the legend Michael Phelps, ahead of the Briton Duncan Scott and the Swiss Jérémy Desplanches.
Bronze medalist over the distance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Wang completed the race in 1 min 55 sec 00, a new Asian record, resisting the cannon comeback of Duncan Scott (1: 55.28), while Desplanches snatched the bronze (1: 56.17) for 5 / 100th to the Japanese Daiya Seto.
The event entered a new era after the retirement of the American Michael Phelps, who had won each Olympic title between 2004 and 2016. Also emblematic, his compatriot Ryan Lochte, 36, had failed to qualify for his fifth Games during American selections.
At 27, Wang had dominated the semi-finals and was advancing as the favorite, but he first had to catch up with the American Michael Andrew, 22, who started very quickly and who finally cracked in the last pitch to finish 5th. (1: 57.31).
Duncan Scott, 24, adds a third medal to his Tokyo harvest, after silver on Tuesday in the 200m behind his compatriot Tom Dean, then gold the next day with the British 4x200m.
Finally, the vice-world champion Jérémy Desplanches, well back in the last 50 meters, offers Switzerland its first Olympic medal in swimming since Etienne Dagon, in bronze in the 200 m breaststroke at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The reigning world champion in the distance, the Japanese Daiya Seto, 26, fails at the foot of the podium and loses an opportunity to redeem himself after his elimination on Saturday in the series of the 400m medley, of which he was the big favorite.
© 2021 AFP