Glamour couple’s gold medal hopes wash away in the pool
Australian swimming’s glamour couple Emily Seebohm and Mitch Larkin have missed the medals in their respective Olympic 100m backstroke finals.
Seebohm finished a lacklustre seventh in her final while Larkin came fourth.
Both entered finals this morning, Australian time, as world champions and gold medal favourites.
Both led at the halfway mark, but both ultimately experienced a similar disappointment.
Seebohm was the first to race but Larkin, her partner of almost a year, was in the call room awaiting his own final at the time.
Seebohm blamed her sluggish semi-final which forced her to start the medal race from the lonely lane one.
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“It was always going to be tough from lane one,” she said.
“I tried to stick to my own race as much as I could, I wanted to take it out but it hurt me on the back end.
“My semi needed to be better so I could be in that inside lane and have someone push me.”
Seebohm produced a stunning opening lap from lane one but then was overtaken slipped to seventh in a race won by Hungarian Katinka Hosszu. Australia’s Madison Wilson finished last.
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Just eight minutes after Seebohm’s final, Larkin’s race started.
"Unfortunately I finished fourth which sucks, but I had a crack"
Like his girlfriend, Larkin started strongly to take the lead after 50m but was overtaken by swimmers including gold medal winner Ryan Murphy from the United States.
The Australian said watching Seebohm’s final didn’t impact his preparation.
“I left everything out there on the pool, unfortunately I finished fourth which sucks, but I had a crack,” Larkin said.
“I couldn’t have done anything different.”
Meanwhile, Australian duo Emma McKeon and Bronte Barratt both qualified for the women’s 200m freestyle final with solid swims in their Monday night semi-finals.
McKeon qualified sixth-fastest while Barratt was eighth-quickest into Tuesday night’s final.
-AAP
