Jazmin Carlin became the first British athlete to win two medals at Rio 2016 as her 800m Freestyle silver helped Team GB equal their best Olympic Games medal haul in the swimming pool since Los Angeles 1984.
Carlin entered the 800m freestyle final ranked third from
the heats and was to win a back and forth tussle with Hungary’s reigning
European champion Boglarka Kapas for silver.
Gold went to Katie Ledecky, her fourth of the Games in Rio, in a new world record of 8:04.79 minutes with Carlin 11.38 seconds behind and Kapas a further 0.20 further adrift in third.
She claimed world bronze over 800m last year in Kazan, won silver in the 400m freestyle on day two of the Games and a repeat over double the distance means she is Britain’s first double medallist of Rio 2016.
Carlin said: “If someone had told me four years ago that I would be stood on a podium twice with two silver medals I would have said there is no way.
“It has taken a lot of time to get here and there have been times when I haven’t believed in myself but my family and the all of the support staff around me have believed in me from the bottom.
“I feel very lucky to have gotten on the podium again. When you are racing an 800m and there is someone that far ahead swimming an incredible race, you focus on yourself.
“The rest of the field were Olympic and world medallists so I knew it was going to be tough.
“Since I was a young girl it has been a dream to go to an Olympics and to finally be here is a dream come true but to be on the podium twice with two silver medals definitely hasn’t sunk in, it feels a bit surreal.”
Also in finals action for the British team on day seven in Rio was Ben Proud, he lined up in the Men’s 50m Freestyle final. Proud touched home in fourth and narrowly missed out on a medal.
Fran Halsall returned to the pool following an impressive heats swim. She went in the opening semi-final of the Women’s 50m Freestyle and stopped the clock first to take the race win and returns tomorrow for the final fourth fastest.
Team GB now have five medals in the swimming pool with one more session of competition left to go in Rio, equalling the sport’s previous best haul from the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.
Team GB Rio 2106 Swimming medal tally: Gold: 1. Silver: 4. Bronze: 0. Total: 5.