Great Britain’s Cooke sets swimming record
Great Britain’s James Cooke broke the Olympic record in the 200m freestyle swim with a time of 1:55.60, narrowly edging out Amro El-Geziry who held the title since London when he swam in 1:55.70.
Cooke’s performance will be helpful in his quest for a medal after only netting 184 points in the fencing ranking round. The top three, for comparison, scored over 230 points.
El-Geziry had a strong performance in Brazil finishing with a time of 1:55.80 while his brother Omar netted 330 points to build on his second place finish in the fencing ranking round.
The lone American representative, Nathan Schrimsher, was in the fifth heat and led for the majority. In the end, it was a close finish where he was just nudged out to third place by London silver medalist Cao Zhongrong of China and Jinhwa Jung of South Korea.
Modern pentathlon has become a family affair for the Espositos. Max Esposito, the brother of Chloe who won gold in the women’s pentathlon, finished fourth in the swim event with a time of 1:59.71. His father competed for Australia at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
Esposito, much like Cooke, hopes his performance will help propel him towards medal contention after struggling in the fencing ranking round.
Gold favorite Aleksandr Lesun and defending gold medalist Dave Svoboda finished 22nd and 23rd.