Barbadian swimmer Alex Sobers capped off his stint at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by setting a new national record of 1 minute 48.09 seconds in a sixth-place finish in heat 2 of the men’s 200 metres freestyle preliminaries yesterday morning.
Competing in lane 7 in his favoured event, Sobers had a slightly better start than in his 400 metres freestyle heat on Saturday, but fell behind in the first half of the race. In the final 100 metres, Sobers gathered another burst of speed to pass Malaysia’s Welson Sim and Turkey’s Baturalp Unlu to finish ahead of them in a new personal best time.
Romania’s dazzling 16-year-old David Popovici was the class of the field, touching the wall in one minute 45.32 seconds. Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo, the winner of Heat 3, led the list of qualifiers for last night’s semi-finals with a time of 1:44.62.
American all-time great Michael Phelps has the Olympic record of 1:42.96. (NM)
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