Second gold for Kitajima

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima underlined his status as the greatest breaststroke swimmer of all time by winning the 200m at Beijing’s Water Cube on Thursday morning.

The Tokyo-born 25-year-old added the 200m title to the 100m gold medal he won earlier in the week as he successfully defended the two titles he claimed in Athens four years ago.

Kitajima touched the wall in 2 minutes 07.64 seconds to set a new Olympic record and to just miss his own world record by 0.13 secs as he defeated Australia’s Brenton Rickard and fast-finishing Frenchman Hughes Duboscq.