Sport

Rio 2016: Michael Phelps wins two more golds to bring tally to 21

American superstar wins 200m butterfly before anchoring USA in 4x200 freestyle

USA’s Michael Phelps celebrates winning the men’s 200m butterfly final at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA Wire
USA’s Michael Phelps celebrates winning the men’s 200m butterfly final at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA Wire
Wed Aug 10 2016 - 04:00

The United States won the men's 4x200 metre freestyle relay on Tuesday, with Michael Phelps swimming the anchor leg to take his 21st gold medal. Britain won silver, and Japan bronze.

Phelps swam the final leg an hour after winning his 20th gold in the 200 metres butterfly.

South African Chad Le Clos shocked Phelps by winning gold ahead of his idol in Phelps's signature event at the London 2012 Games.

Phelps had won the title at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and reclaimed it with a block to wall victory in one minute 53.36 seconds on Tuesday.

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Masato Sakai of Japan threatened to come from behind to upset the American, finishing four one-hundredths of a second behind in second.

Hungary’s Tamas Kenderesi took bronze in 1:53.62 as Le Clos finished outside the medals in fourth in 1:54.06.

Both Le Clos’s parents – mum Geraldine and father Bert, whose exuberant celebrations captured the public’s imagination four years ago – have cancer.

And there was no emotional victory for the South African this time round as Phelps reigned supreme.

Phelps already has one gold from Rio – his 19th, which came in the 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday – and a further medal could follow later on Tuesday night in the 4x200m freestyle relay after he was drafted into the United States’ team following the afternoon heats.

Phelps’s team-mate Katie Ledecky already has two gold medals from Rio, after adding the 200m freestyle title to the 400m she won on Saturday.

The 19-year-old won in 1:53.73 as Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden finished second in 1:54.08. Australia’s Emma McKeon was third in 1:54.92.

Hungary‘s Katinka Hosszu won her third Olympic gold medal in four days with victory in the women‘s 200m individual medley.

The 27-year-old, who set an Olympic record of two minutes, 6.58 seconds, had already won the 400 individual medley on Saturday and 100 backstroke on Monday.

Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O‘Connor took the silver medal with Maya DiRado of the United States winning the bronze.

Hosszu, who withdrew from the 200m butterfly earlier on Tuesday to prepare for the evening race, is entered in one more individual event and could equal the women‘s record of four solo swimming golds at a single Games set by East Germany’s Kristin Otto in 1988.