The Albany Gazette - Japan swimmer Ohashi, 17, shrugs off Covid to smash world record

The 17-year-old won his second gold of the Games in Tokyo despite running a temperature of about 39 degrees just days before the competition began.

The win continued his stunning rise in the sport and marked him out as the man to beat at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years' time.

Ohashi said his illness had been a blessing in disguise after cutting more than half a second off the previous world record, held by China's Qin Haiyang, which had stood since July 2023.

"With the Covid, it made me feel uneasy mentally," he said.

"But on the other hand it meant I was forced to rest my body properly for a while. I think that was a good thing."

Ohashi had already won the 100m breaststroke gold this week in Tokyo after a dead heat with China's Dong Zhihao.

He will try to make it a hat-trick when he swims in Friday's 50m breaststroke.

He took control from the off in the 200m final and from then it was a race against the clock.

He finished 3.84sec faster than silver medallist Denis Petrashov of Kyrgyzstan.

"My next goal is to win gold at next year's world championships and then go on to win gold at the Olympics," said Ohashi.

"I don't want to be satisfied and I want to feel these emotions again."

Ohashi's success has seen him tipped to follow in the footsteps of Japanese breaststroke great Kosuke Kitajima.

The "Frog King" won the 100m-200m double at the 2004 Athens Olympics and repeated the feat four years later in Beijing.

Ohashi said he was "watching all the other swimmers and trying to learn from them".

"I don't really have any heroes, I think all swimmers are fantastic," he said.

"But in terms of achievements, Kitajima is the one I would like to emulate most."

Ohashi's coach, Shin Ota, said the time had taken him by surprise.

"Everyone was going crazy but I was only watching the swimming, not the times," he said.

"I thought he would get a personal best but I didn't expect it to be this far under."

- From Russia to Bahrain -

Kotomi Kato made it a home double after winning the women's 200m breaststroke.

Bahrain's Mikhail Arkhangelskiy won his country's first Asian Games swimming gold in the 50m butterfly.

Arkhangelskiy was born in Russia and moved to France as a four-year-old as a political refugee.

The 21-year-old tried and failed to get French nationality and his international swimming career was in limbo until Bahrain offered him the opportunity to represent them earlier this year.

He tied his own Asian record time of 22.91sec and said he was "pretty proud".

"I was happy but it was also relief, relief of all this pain," he said.

"I'm really proud and happy that Bahrain gave me this chance."

China's Wu Qingfeng won gold in the women's 50m freestyle in an Asian Games record time of 23.98sec.

Her win denied silver medallist Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong a hat-trick of sprint golds in Tokyo.

There was another Games record in the men's 800m freestyle, where China's Zhang Zhanshuo won in a time of 7min 42.49sec.

It was Zhang's fifth gold medal this week in Tokyo.

He won his sixth less than an hour later as part of China's men's 4x100m freestyle relay team.

China also won the women's 4x200m freestyle relay.

(E.Taylor--TAG)