Swimming-Britain win mixed 4x100m medley relay gold in world record time

By Qatar Day - July 31, 2021

Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Swimming - Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay - Final - Tokyo Aquatics Centre - Tokyo, Japan - July 31, 2021. Kathleen Dawson of Britain in action REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

REUTERS

Britain won the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay in a world record time of three minutes 37.58 at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.

Great Britain claimed a fourth swimming gold at an Olympics for the first time in 113 years by winning the inaugural 4x100m mixed medley relay in a world-record time.

The British quartet of Kathleen Dawson, Adam Peaty, James Guy and Anna Hopkin won in three minutes 37.58 seconds.

China took the silver medal while Australia won bronze.

The gold is Peaty's second in Tokyo after the 100m breaststroke while Guy also won the 4x200m freestyle relay.

"One word has changed the whole British team - belief," said Peaty.

"We believe we can win, we believe we can get world records. If you have belief, you can build everything around that and we showed that here."

GB stage stunning recovery

The victory was all the more impressive given Dawson slipped off the wall at the start of her backstroke leg before fighting back superbly to give her team-mates the chance to chase down their opponents.

Peaty and Guy overturned the deficit in the middle two splits - the latter completing his 100m in just 50 seconds - before Hopkin held on in a final 100m that featured American superstar Caeleb Dressel.

The USA were surprisingly not much of a factor as they finished fifth, with Dressel left way too much to do in his leg - in what was the 24-year-old's third race of the day.

"I was trying not to think about it [Dressel chasing her down]," said Hopkin. "I was trying not to think about how far ahead we were from them.

"It's just irrelevant when you're in the water - you've just got to race. When I turned I saw I still had a good bit of water in front of me and I just went for it. It's an amazing feeling and a privilege to be in this team."

Great Britain have seven swimming medals so far in Tokyo and could add to that on Sunday with the men's 4x100m medley relay team and Dan Jervis (men's 1500m freestyle) and Ben Proud, who qualified from his 50m freestyle semi-final on Saturday, all in finals action.

Editing by Nick Mulvenney.