Rio de Janeiro: As swimming prodigy Katie Ledecky bagged her third gold of the Games anchoring the United States team home in the women’s 4x200-metre freestyle final relay Dmitriy Balandin was putting the swimming on the map in his home country.
Balandin, swimming in lane eight in the 200-metre breaststroke, overhauled early pacesetter Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan at the final turn to win in 2min 07.46sec and give Kazakhstan a first ever Olympic medal in the sport
American Josh Prenot, who came into the Games atop the 2016 world rankings, was second in 2:07.53 and Russia’s Anton Chupkov was third in 2:07.70.
“I’m very proud to win Kazakhstan’s first medal and make history for my country,” said the 21-year-old from Almaty. “They will probably be celebrating right now back in Kazakhstan!”
Ledecky, who teamed with Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith and Maya DiRado, claimed her third gold of the Games as the American clocked 7:43.03.
Australia’s Leah Neale, Emma McKeon, Bronte Barratt and Cook earned silver in 7:44.87 and Canada’s Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck, Brittany MacLean and Penny Oleksiak the bronze in 7:45.39.
Ledecky has already won the 200 and 400-metre freestyle gold medals at these Games.
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte-Garcia rallied to win the 200m butterfly, improving on the silver she earned in London.
She caught front-running Australian Madeline Groves at the 150-metre mark, and finally got past her to touch in first in 2:04.85, just three-hundredths of a second in front.
Reigning world champion Natsumi Hoshi of Japan clocked 2:05.20 to match the bronze medal she claimed in London.
