Bree wins heat to go into 200m breaststroke semi

Ireland’s Andy Bree won his heat in the 200m breaststroke in a time of 2 mins 10.91 secs to book his spot in the semi-finals alongside Britain’s Kris Gilchrist, but there was to be no joy for James Kirton.

Gilchrist’s time of 2:11.13 saw him finish third in his heat, which was won by Italy’s Paolo Bossini in a new Olympic record of 2:08.98.

That time was surpassed, however, by Hungarian Daniel Gyurta in the final heat as he defeated defending champions Kosuke Kitajima of Japan with a time of 2:08.68.

"It was good fun,'' said Co Down man Bree, whose time was more than two seconds inside the Irish record.

"I felt controlled and on pace with all my strokes. Hopefully it will be good enough to get back for tomorrow morning.

“200 is my event, when I try and sprint the 100m I don’t know what I’m doing. I know that race inside out now.

“It’s good to get rid of that 2:13.15, it’s been hanging around for a while. With the pace work I’ve been doing I knew I was going to swim fast. It was good to finally get out there and do what I do and it was fun.”