Gutsy Klockhkova defends title

Yana Klochkova lived up to her top billing as she put in a gutsy display to successfully defend her Olympic 400m individual medley title.

The 22-year-old world and Olympic record holder from Ukraine followed up her victory in Sydney four years ago by just about holding off American Kaitlin Sandeno for the gold medal here in the Aquatic Centre.

Klochkova touched home in a time of 4:34.83, just 0.12 of a second ahead of Sandeno who set an American record with her silver medal-winning time of 4:34.95. Georgina Bardach of Argentina took the bronze in 4:37.51.