TEAM GBs men secured another gold in the Olympic pool with a dominant victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay in Tokyo.
Welsh swimmers Matthew Richards and Calum Jarvis were both part of the the 4x200m freestyle team alongside Tom Dean, James Guy and Duncan Scott who dominated the final and finished just 0.03 seconds off a world record time.
Matt Richards swam the third leg of the relay, handing over to Scott with a huge advantage and putting him on course to see off the Russian Olympic Committee and Australia to finish in six minutes and 58.58 seconds – just three hundredths of a second short of the world record – and secure Team GB’s third swimming gold of Tokyo 2020.
Matt Richards and Calum Jarvis aren’t just Wales’ first gold medallists at Tokyo 2020 – they’re the nation’s first Olympic champions for 109 years in the pool
Great Britain were favourites going into the race having qualified fastest and they produced what former Olympian Mark Foster described as a “demonstration of a performance”.
The victory means Dean becomes the first British male swimmer to win two golds at the same Olympic Games since 1908.
It is also the first time in 113 years that Great Britain have won three swimming gold medals at an Olympics.
Richards, who at 18 years old is the youngest and most inexperienced of the quartet, said this race was “just the very beginning”.
“It’s an honour to have this medal hanging round my neck,” he added.
“Forever now, this will be something that I can say I was part of and it will be something I can tell my kids and hopefully my grandkids about one day.”
Calum, from Ystrad, Rhondda, was also awarded the team gold because he swam in the prelims of the competition.
