Tokyo (AFP)
The Australian Emma McKeon, 27, became Olympic champion in the 100m freestyle of which she was the big favorite, ahead of the Hong Kong revelation of the Games, Siobhan Bernadette Haughey, and the second Australian Cate Campbell, Friday at the Tokyo Olympics.
After throwing the Australian 4x100m to gold and the world record on Sunday, then winning bronze in the 100m butterfly, the swimmer from Wollongong completed the round trip in 51 sec 96, with a 31 / 100th lead. on Haughey (52.27) and 56 / 100th on Campbell (52.52).
Looking for a first individual title, Emma McKeon arrived with the best time of the year (52.19), achieved during the Australian series, then planted a banderilla from the series (52.13).
It was still necessary to resist the pressure which had engulfed during the Olympics-2016 his compatriot Cate Campbell, who had sunk in the final (6th) after having advanced as a big favorite, and won a bronze scent of revenge on Friday.
McKeon's victory further elevates the record for the Australians, who have been waiting for an individual Olympic title since 2008 and already have four, with Kaylee McKeown in the 100m backstroke and Ariarne Titmus in the 200 and 400m freestyle.
But the queen race of swimming also confirmed the explosion of the Hong Kongese Siobhan Bernadette Haughey, already a silver medalist in the 200 m with a new Asian record, and who repeated the feat on Friday in the sprint.
Haughey, who trains mainly in the United States, at the University of Michigan, in 2019 became the first swimmer from Hong Kong to compete in the final of a World Cup.
Reduced by her late recovery after a broken elbow in February, the world record holder (51.71 in 2017), the Swedish Sarah Sjöström, managed to reach the final, as on Monday in the 100 m butterfly (7th), but no 'finished 5th in 52 sec 68.
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