Zac Stubblety-Cook claims gold in Men's 200m breaststroke final at Tokyo Olympics

Lachlan McKirdy

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Zac Stubblety-Cook claims gold in Men's 200m breaststroke final at Tokyo Olympics image

Zac Stubblety-Cook has won gold in the Men's 200m breaststroke final as Australia's swimmers continue their gold rush in Tokyo. 

The 22-year-old was the fastest qualifier for the final after producing a fantastic time in the semifinals. 

However, early on it appeared that the Aussie would struggle for a medal. 

Stubblety-Cook turned 6th at the 50-metre mark and was only able to get to 4th by the halfway point. 

The field was chasing Arno Kamminga from the Netherlands who raced out of the blocks and had almost a second lead after 100 metres.

However, Kamminga started to falter and the Aussie saw it as his time to strike. 

In the penultimate lap, he managed to force his way into the podium positions before he made his biggest move. 

Turning into the final 50-metres in third, Stubblety-Cook swam a split of 32.21 to come over the top of Kamminga and claim the gold medal in an Olympic Record time of 2:06.38.

The time was only 0.26 seconds off the World Record time set by Anton Chupkov in 2019. 

Kamminga finished in second while Finland's Matti Mattsson finished in third. 


Stubblety-Cook becomes the first Aussie to win the Men's 200m breaststroke since Ian O'Brien in 1964. 

Speaking after his swim, the 22-year-old was in disbelief 

"Unbelievable, I'm lost for words really," he told Channel 7.

"It's been a tough five years and I'm just lost for words, to be honest. 

"I made it entertaining, right! That's the way I train and that's the way I work and race all the time so, at these Games I wasn't going to try and change anything. 

"It's too late for that, I'm definitely happy that the process pulled off."


 

Lachlan McKirdy

Lachlan McKirdy Photo