Joy as Rylov ends Russia's barren spell

TOKYO • Evgeny Rylov said the sky was the limit after breaking Russia's barren Olympic spell by beating compatriot Kliment Kolesnikov and American defending champion Ryan Murphy in a thrilling 100m backstroke final yesterday.

Touching the wall in 51.98sec, 0.02 ahead of Kolesnikov, Rylov became the first Russian man to win an Olympic swim gold since the 1996 Atlanta Games when Alexander Popov and Denis Pankratov both topped the podium twice.

"I was overwhelmed by joy, now I just have to prove myself in other events," said Rylov, 24. "I do understand the sky is the limit but I have achieved a very important result and of course I felt a huge relief."

The 1-2 finish for the Russians comes as they compete under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee at the Tokyo Olympics as part of sanctions for several doping scandals.

When asked about hearing Tchaikovsky instead of the Russian anthem at the podium, Rylov, who started swimming aged six in Russia's Novotroitsk, said they just had to accept it. "Perhaps it was the best solution than having us miss the Games altogether."

His gold also ended the United States' six Games winning streak in the event, but Rylov, who made his Olympic debut in Brazil where he placed sixth in the 100m backstroke and won a bronze in the 200m, said there was no "special rivalry" between the camps.

Despite his disappointment, Murphy, who holds the world record of 51.85 which he set in Rio 2016, was pleased the Russian swimmers were in Japan.

"It was really cool to see them... do really great and to be a part of this," he said.

He and Rylov will both be competing in today's 200m back heats. Murphy is also the defending champion in this event, which the US have also won at the last six Games.

Britain created their own piece of history yesterday too as Tom Dean, who contracted Covid-19 twice in the past year, won the 200m freestyle gold. He was 0.04 ahead of teammate Duncan Scott in his country's first men's one-two in the pool since 1908.

"It's amazing. It's a dream come true having a gold around my neck," said Dean, 21. "Sitting in my flat in isolation, an Olympic gold was a million miles away."

He first caught the virus last September, and then had a more serious infection early this year.

"I was quite ill for about 10 days... You can't just go straight back into full-on training so it required a few weeks out," he said.

"And I'm thinking how am I going to be able to recover from this in time?"

There was plenty of drama in the other finals. Australian Kaylee McKeown staged a stunning fightback to win the women's 100m backstroke in 57.47, just ahead of Canada's Kylie Masse (57.72). American Reagan Smith was third in 58.05.

In the women's 100m breaststroke final, Alaskan teenager Lydia Jacoby, 17, upstaged her 2016 Olympic champion teammate Lilly King to touch the wall first in 1min 4.95sec. South African Tatjana Schoenmaker was 0.27 behind and King third in 1:05.54.

REUTERS