Team USA take one-two in the men’s 400m individual medley final with Chase Kalisz winning gold and Jay Litherland clinching silver… while Great Britain’s Max Litchfield misses out on bronze by just 0.21 SECONDS
Team USA reigned supreme over the men’s 400m individual medley final with Chase Kalisz taking the gold medal and Jay Litherland finishing second.
Kalisz was able to pull away in a very tight field to clinch victory in the opening medal race in the pool, while Great Britain’s Max Litchfield came home joint-fourth.
Litchfield, the slowest butterfly swimmer out of the eight athletes, burst through in the freestyle and agonisingly came within 0.21 seconds of claiming bronze.
Chase Kalisz won the men’s 400m individual medley final in a superb one-two for Team USA
The result marked the seventh time the American team have taken the top two places in the event, and Kalisz’s gold was their first of this summer’s Olympics.
In the end, the victor triumphed with a fine time of 4min 9.42 sec.
Litchfield, meanwhile, was inches away from becoming Team GB’s first medallist this summer – and has repeated his placing from Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
Despite trailing in eighth place after the butterfly leg, Litchfield edged up into sixth following the backstroke.
Great Britain’s Max Litchfield finished 0.21 seconds off bronze after coming through the field
He then starred in the breaststroke to take fifth, and from then it was a tense, last-gasp tussle with Hungary’s David Verraszte in fourth.
‘It is (gutting) – you summed it up,’ Litchfield admitted. ‘So close but so far. It is what it is. We’ll go back and look at what we can do better.
‘I’ve done everything I can these last five years, just not quite enough. I don’t think there was too much wrong.
‘Small things, we’ll go back and look at how we can do things better.’
Litchfield admitted the feeling was ‘gutting’ after narrowly falling short of a spot on the podium
Asked whether he has done enough to earn a relay spot, Litchfield was uncertain.
‘I don’t know,’ he added. ‘Maybe 4x200m but that will depend on the team – hopefully the guys can go in there and smash it in the heats.
‘We’ll see. I have to go back and focus as if I am doing that. If not, I’m done.’
The bronze went to Brendon Smith of Australia, who took their first medal in Tokyo after blitzing through from last with 100m remaining in the freestyle leg.
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