Men’s 200M Breaststroke final was a sight to be seen with every athlete finishing within a stroke of one another
The first medal event of Wednesday night’s swimming program was the men’s 200-meter breaststroke. It featured some history and one of the closest finishes we’ll see at this Olympics.
First off, a dude from Borat’s home country won gold, and in doing so, became the first man in the history of Kazakhstan to win a medal in swimming. Dmitriy Balandin touched the wall in 2:07.46. American Josh Prenot won silver (2:07.53), and Anton Chupkov of Russia earned bronze by hitting the wall in 2:07.70.
Prenot didn’t take long to get to his phone and thumb out a quick post-race tweet.
Feels good man
— Josh Prenot (@JoshPrenot) August 11, 2016
Don’t get too wild on us, Josh.
The race itself was crazy close. How close? Glance.
who the heck ever gets a lanes 8/3/7 trifecta…this was friggin' close all around pic.twitter.com/xeMv4RBT2W
— Eric Kay (@ekaycbs) August 11, 2016
You seldom see eight swimmers finish THIS close in a final, then take into account that Balandin — swimming in lane 8 — won the thing. Even the broadcast team was in shock.
Lane 7 had the bronze winner. An 8/3/7 gold/silver/bronze is very rare. Regardless, congrats to Prenot for earning a silver in the race. For Kazakhstan, it’s a monumental night. And now we’re probably going to have a brief revival of Borat jokes, I’m afraid to inform.
