Matt Richards soars to 200m freestyle silver at Paris 2024

Swimming 29 Jul 24

In a pool that is shaping up to be a test of milliseconds, Matt Richards came out with a stunning silver in the men's 200m freestyle.

Touching the wall just 0.02 seconds behind newly crowned Olympic champion David Popovici of Romania, Richards took his maiden Olympic individual medal at La Defense Arena in a time of 1:44.74.

A burst of energy from lane one, Richards was far away from the action in the middle of the pool but swam his own race to clinch a stellar silver.

The 21-year-old became 200m freestyle world champion in 2023 and has been a notable presence on the podium in recent years and continued that reign at his second Olympics in Paris.

Fellow Team GB teammate Duncan Scott, who won silver in the event at Tokyo 2020, narrowly missed out on the podium, just 0.08 seconds behind the USA's Luke Hobson, who won bronze.

And despite the close margins, Richards was ecstatic with his result and teased that there's still more to come from Team GB in the pool.

"I can't be too disappointed with that it’s my first ever individual at an Olympic Games so to walk away from that with a silver medal is fantastic," he said.

"Obviously two one hundredths off gold is excruciatingly frustrating but if anything it’s added more fire to my belly.

"It didn’t feel bad, it did feel like I’d done enough but the time says differently.

"It’s not a sport where its up to debate it is black and white so we’ll move on, we’ll go better and see what we can do next time."

"I’ve got a lot more to go this week the 100m starts tomorrow the 4x200m is tomorrow.

"Myself and Duncan, second and fourth, gutted for him by the way just missing out on the medal, he deserves it more than anyone but that bodes really well for our 4x200m. It fuels me on for the rest of this week."

An evening of action packed with finals, Freya Colbert and Katie Shanahan were both back in action for the women's 400m individual medley.

Colbert finished fourth in a time of 4:35.67 with Shanahan back in seventh place just weeks after shaking off glandular fever.

But in a final that saw world record holder and Canadian super-star Summer McIntosh soar to gold, it was an impressive showing for both Olympic debutants, but Colbert still believes she has more in the tank.

"I was really confident coming into this and felt like I was in a really good position to get a PB," she said.

"With the way the meet had gone we knew it might be a case of who can get the hand on the wall first instead of the times we are swimming in. Today that just wasn't me.

"I love swimming the relay and us girls are all really excited, trust in our training and all feel like we have got a lot to give.

"I was looking for a high on the first day of racing but I'll continue searching as we go through the week."

In the other finals of the evening session, Angharad Evans finished sixth in the women's 100m breaststroke and Ollie Morgan took eighth in the men's 100m backstroke.

Sportsbeat 2024

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