Olympic Times - Sports Daily

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima established a place for himself among swimming’s all-time greats with a victory Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Kitajima cruised to victory in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke in 2 minutes, 07.64 seconds to become the fifth swimmer in Olympic history to complete a golden double in successive Games.

Australia’s Brenton Rickard placed second in 2:08.88, with Hugues Duboscq of France third in 2:08.94 at the National Aquatics Center.

Kitajima, a double gold medalist four years ago in Athens who captured the 100 breaststroke gold Monday, finished just .13 off the world record he set in June.

Unlike in the 100, Kitajima came into the 200 as the firm favorite, not only as the world record-holder but because he didn’t have to deal with former record-holder and main rival, American Brendan Hansen, who failed to make the U.S. team in the event.

Kitajima joined American star Michael Phelps in the elite group of swimmers who have doubled in back-to-back Olympics.

The others were Germany’s Roland Matthes (100-200 backstroke, 1968-72), Hungary’s Tomas Darnyi (200-400 individual medley, 1988-92) and Russia’s Alexander Popov (50-100 freestyle, 1992-96).

The last swimmer to win back to back gold in the men’s 200 breaststroke was also a Japanese, Yoshiyuki Tsuruta way back in 1928 and 1932.

from: yomiuri.co.jp