Rio de Janeiro: A tear was shed on Monday night, but then Mitch Larkin put the disappointment of his 100m backstroke near miss to bed, and locked in on securing gold in Thursday night's 200m backstroke final.
The Queenslander has given himself every chance of doing just that, qualifying second-fastest for the race after finishing second behind Russia's Evgeny Rylov in his semi-final on Wednesday night. Rylov posted a time of 1:54:45, shading Larkin who clocked in at 1:45:73.
Larkin, 23, had been the third-fastest qualifier for the 100m event, only to finish fourth in the final. He revealed after his heat on Wednesday that he welled up after the race.
"I had a bit of tear," he said.
But he managed to move on soon after, and that race may soon be banished to the footnotes.
"I got over it pretty quickly," Larkin said on Wednesday night (Rio time).
"It took me that night to get over it and realise what happened, and that it'll be four years until I get to sort of have that opportunity again.
"I got back in the pool and stuck to what I do best."
Larkin said he has learned from the experience of earlier in the meet.
"The 100 a couple of days ago I sort of forced it and with that and plus the boost of it being a final it sort of overcooked me a little bit but tomorrow night I just want to stick to my plan and execute as best I can," he said.
And he was upbeat about his showing in the semi.
"Yeah it was good. [I] watched the first semi and they swum well. I knew probably 1:55 would make it to the final, and I wanted to be a bit quicker and hopefully get an inside lane and I was able to do that."
The news was not as good for fellow Australian Josh Beaver, who like he had in the 100m backstroke, failed to progress from the 200m semi-finals.
Beaver started the first semi-final brightly before fading to finish fifth. Still he was pleased with his performance.
"I was really happy with that race," Beaver said.
"I had to do what I did. I think I executed it really well."
Among the other qualifiers for the 200m final were American Ryan Murphy and China's Xu Jiayu, who took gold and silver respectively in the 100m event.
0 comments
New User? Sign up