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RIO DE JANEIRO — Australia’s really young gun Kyle Chalmers won the Olympic 100m freestyle gold in Rio on Wednesday to end his country’s 48-year drought in swimming’s prestige event.
The 18-year-old, who was swimming in his school carnival earlier this year, stormed home to win in a junior world record of 47.58sec, 22-tenths of a second ahead of Belgian silver medalist Pieter Timmers’ 47.80 with 2012 gold medalist Nathan Adrian of the United States third in 47.85.
Adrian said he’d never heard of Chalmers until he finished second at the Australian trials.
Chalmers said that suited him just fine.
“I think I definitely flew under the radar,” said Chalmers who won’t be able to stay out of the spotlight now after an electrifying Olympic debut that saw him duck under the 48-second mark for the first time in Tuesday’s heats.
He became the first Australian to win 100m free gold since Mike Wenden in 1968. Since then three Australians had finished second — Mark Stockwell in 1984, Eamon Sullivan in 2008 and James Magnussen in 2012.
As Chalmers put Australia back, Dmitriy Balandin was putting the swimming on the map in his home country — making Kazakhstan’s first Olympic medal in the sport a gold in the 200m breaststroke.
Balandin, swimming in lane eight, overhauled early pacesetter Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan at the final turn to win in 2min 07.46sec.
American Josh Prenot, who came into the Games atop the 2016 world rankings, was second in 2:07.53 and Russia’s Anton Chupkov was third in 2:07.70.
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte-Garcia rallied to win the 200m butterfly, improving on the silver she earned in London. She caught front-running Australian Madeline Groves at the 150m mark, and finally got past her to touch in first in 2:04.85, just three-hundredths of a second in front.
Reigning world champion Natsumi Hoshi of Japan clocked 2:05.20 to match the bronze medal she claimed in London.
Katie Ledecky anchored the United States to gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, overtaking Australia’s Tamsin Cook to bring her team home in 7:43.03.
Ledecky, who teamed with Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith and Maya DiRado, claimed her third gold of the Games while Australia’s Leah Neale, Emma McKeon, Bronte Barratt and Cook earned silver in 7:44.87.
Canada’s Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck, Brittany MacLean and Penny Oleksiak earned bronze in 7:45.39.
In fencing, Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri became the first African woman to win a medal in the sport with a bronze in the individual foil, dedicating her achievement to “the Arab woman... who has her place in society.”
Her French husband Erwann Le Pechoux could get a medal in the individual foil event.
Mashu Baker and Haruka Tachimoto made it a golden double for Japan in judo.
Shohei Ono had got them off the golden mark Monday by winning the men’s under-73kg while all bar one of the 10 fighters to compete so far have finished on the podium.
In London, Japan managed just one gold medal through Kaori Matsumoto — who won bronze Monday — in the women’s under-57kg division.
First Tachimoto stunned three-time world champion Yuri Alvear of Colombia to win the women’s under-73kg title before Baker, whose first name is a Japanized version of Mathew, edged out Varlam Liparteliani of Georgia in the men’s under-90kg.
China’s Ding Ning beat teammate and defending champion Li Xiaoxia 4-3 in a high-speed battle of spins and smashes to win gold in the women’s singles table tennis.
The world No. 2, who left the London Games with a silver medal four years ago amid tears after a spat with the referee, fell to her knees and sobbed into her hands upon clinching gold.
North Korea’s Kim Song I, who was playing in her first Olympics, took bronze with a 4-1 win over Japan’s Ai Fukuhara amid loud cheers by her country’s delegation in the crowd.
The men’s rugby sevens saw a day of upsets, with New Zealand losing to Japan in the groups before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Fiji, which is chasing its country’s first Olympic medal. Japan scored a shock win over France to reach the last four.
