Dressel joins elite club as Italy celebrates golden double

TOKYO: Caeleb Dressel powered to his fifth swimming gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday as the United States won their duel in the pool with Australia, while Xander Schauffele claimed golf gold.

Dressel dominated the men’s 50m freestyle final, setting a new Olympic record of 21.07sec, and then returned to help his team smash the world mark in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

The other undoubted star of the pool was Emma McKeon, who finished with four golds to become the first woman to win seven swimming medals at a single Games.

McKeon provided a golden finish when she helped Australia to the women’s 4x100m medley relay crown, less than 40 minutes after winning the 50m freestyle.

US swimmer Robert Finke touched first in the men’s 1500m freestyle to make it a distance double after winning the 800m earlier in the meeting.

The United States ended with 11 golds in the pool, two ahead of fierce rivals Australia, whose nine golds marked their best-ever showing.

Dressel, 24, didn’t get close to matching Michael Phelps’ eight-gold haul at Beijing 2008 but he joins just four other swimmers with at least five wins at a single Games.

“I’m proud of myself,” said the American, who also won two relay golds at the 2016 Rio Games. “I think I reached what my potential was here at these Games.

McKeon, 27, became just the second woman to win seven medals at one Olympics in any sport, after Ukrainian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya in 1952, and is now Australia’s most successful Olympian, with five gold medals and 11 overall.

“I look at the athletes that have gone before me and have been so impressed and inspired by what they’ve done but I’ve never been into the stats and medal counts,” she said.

“But to be in that kind of company, it’s an honour and I know I’ve worked hard for it.”

US golf star Schauffele held his nerve at the Kasumigaseki Country Club to see off Slovakia’s Rory Sabbatini by one shot.

The American world number five finished on 18-under par 266 after carding a 67 while veteran Sabbatini shot a stunning, course-record 10-under-par 61. Behind them, there was a seven-man playoff for bronze.

Lamont Marcell Jacobs stormed to a shock victory in the 100m final to cap a golden double for Italy.

Jacobs became the first Italian in history to be crowned champion in the blue riband event of the Olympic track and field programme after powering home in a blistering 9.80sec.

Fred Kerley of the United States took silver in 9.84sec and Canada’s Andre de Grasse bronze in 9.89sec.

The 26-year-old Jacobs erupted as he crossed the finish line and leapt into the arms of compatriot Gianmarco Tamberi, who only moments earlier had clinched a rare shared gold medal for Italy in the high jump after a duel with Qatari world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim.

It was the final act of a pulsating day three of track and field at the Olympic Stadium which also saw a brilliant world record-breaking gold medal victory in the triple jump for Venezuela’s two-time world champion Yulimar Rojas.

But the undisputed headline-grabbing performance of the night belonged to Italy’s Jacobs, who had never previously gone under 10 seconds before the 2021 season.

The muscular El Paso, Texas-born sprinter had only finished third in his semi-final earlier on Sunday, clocking 9.84sec behind China’s Su Bingtian and Ronnie Baker of the US to qualify for the final as one of the two fastest losers.

But in the final he roared from the blocks, hit the front at around the 50-metre mark and then held on to become the first Olympic 100m gold medallist of the post-Usain Bolt era.