Frenchman Yannick Agnel beat American star Ryan Lochte again to take his second gold in the London Olympics pool, in the men’s 200 metres freestyle on Monday.
The day after storming past Lochte in the 4x100m freestyle relay anchor leg, Agnel was unstoppable again as Lochte even failed to medal in fourth place.
Fifteen-year-old Ruta Meilutyte gave Lithuania a first Olympic swim gold in the 100m breaststroke, American teenager Missy Frankling started her seven-medal quest with 100m backstroke gold and there was more joy for the US with a 100m backstroke double from Matthew Grevers and Nick Thomas.
Monday’s finals session was the first without a world record but plenty of classy swimming.
Agnel was on fire again after his relay heroics, powering home for an undisputed victory in 1 minute 43.14 seconds.
China’s Sun Yang and South Korean Park Taehwan shared silver as both clocked 1:44.93. Lochte missed the podium in fourth place in 1:45.04.
Meilutyte, who trains in England and has a British coach, had the strongest finish in the breaststroke as she got gold in 1:05.47.
American Rebecca Soni had to settle for silver eight hundredth adrift on 1:05.55 and Japan’s Satomi Suzuki took bronze in 1:06.46.
Franklin claimed her first Olympic gold in 58.33 seconds, just 15 minutes after qualifying for the 200m freestyle final, snatching first place on the final strokes from Australian Emily Seebohm, who took silver in 58.68. Aya Terakawa of Japan got bronze in 58.83.
Grevers won the men’s backstroke in 52.16, with Thoman taking silver in 52.92 and another bronze for Japan in the form of Irie Ryosuke on 52.97.
Australian Bronte Barratt led the women’s 200m freestyle semis with 2008 champion Federica Pellegrini of Italy fourth fastest and Franklin qualifying eighth and last for Tuesday’s final, seemingly conserving energy for her final swim shortly afterwards.
