Despite a late push from Chase Kalisz (United States), Kosuke Hagino (Japan) won the gold medal in the men’s 400-meter individual medley with a 4:06.05 race, Japan’s first-ever gold medal in this even.
Olympic swimming results 2016: Kosuke Hagino wins gold in men’s 400m individual medley
Hagino holds off the United States’ Chase Kalisz, who made a late push for a gold medal but came up short on the final 50 meters.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
Kalisz made up nearly three seconds in the final two strokes (the breaststroke and freestyle) but couldn’t quite beat Hagino on the final 50-meter lap of the vent, finishing with a time of 4:06.75. Behind Hagino’s gold and Kalisz’s silver, Japan’s Daiya Seto won bronze with a time of 4:09.71.
“I knew (Hagino) was going to be ahead at the 200 (meter),” said Kalisz in a post-race NBC interview, who knew he would have to catch him in the final 200 meters. “It wasn’t enough.”
The United States had won five straight Olympic golds in the event, but Hagino’s win for Japan breaks that streak, which started in Atlanta in 1996.
Kalisz had posted the top time in the preliminary heats from the morning.
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