O’Connor wins Olympic silver in style

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor showed she was ready to take on the best, as she stormed her way to an Olympic silver medal in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley on day four of Rio 2016.

The University of Bath swimmer touched in a new British record for the second time in as many days, reaching the wall in 2:06.88. It was the race of a lifetime for the 20-year-old.

After qualifying fastest for the semis, there were many expectations for O’Connor to pull something special out of the bag in the final. She was up against 400m IM world record holder and gold medallist Katinka Hosszú of Hungary, and Madeline Dirado of the USA as her two main rivals.

.@SiobhanMOConnor time! Women’s 200m IM Final next. Tough, epic race coming We’re with you Siobhan! #BringOnTheGreatpic.twitter.com/1K0cSYkOZR

— Team GB (@TeamGB) August 10, 2016

She had a great reaction time off the block, and stayed stroke for stroke with Hosszú down the butterfly leg. As expected, she dropped back half a body length over the backstroke leg and Hosszú looked like she might break away.

O’Connor is known for her breaststroke, and she made up some ground over the third 50m. In the freestyle leg is was anyone’s game, and it went right down to the touch.  O’Connor clocked just three tenths of a second behind gold.

O’Connor commented:

It is an absolutely amazing feeling. I have had probably the most consistent block of work that I have ever had leading up to this.

“I was really confident coming into it because sometimes I can have disruptions. I felt in a really good place.

Guy helps GBR to relay silver

The 4x200m Freestyle relay saw some great swimming from the Team GB quartet, which featured Duncan Scott, Dan Wallace, Stephen Milne and James Guy.

After the first three legs, Scott, Wallace and Milne had managed to hold in a great position. They were just a metre or so behind the USA, Japan and Australia, who were all matching stroke for stroke.

Guy said:

Every time I’ve raced this week I’ve got faster and faster and that just shows if you put your mind to something then anything can happen. For me tonight it’s about racing for my country and doing my country proud

At the final change, Guy entered the water in third place after a fantastic swim from Wallace. The Millfield swimmer seemed to have boundless energy, and he made ground to take the touch ahead of Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda for the silver medal.

Willis goes one better to make 200m Breast final

Andrew Willis had an incredible swim in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke semi-final to qualify second fastest overall. The Scottish swimmer clocked a new personal best time after winning heat two in 2:07.73.

He was beaten only by Ippei Wantanabe of Japan, who touched in an Olympic record in heat one.

View full results from day four finals over on the Rio 2016 Website.