TOKYO – American Caeleb Dressel has lived up to great expectations by leading his country to gold in the Olympics men’s 4x100m medley relay in a new world world of 3min 26.78sec on Sunday (Aug 1) and rounding off his campaign here with five gold medals.
Britain was second on 3:27.51 followed by Italy (3:29.17).
He now has seven overall with two relay golds at Rio 2016.
Just an hour earlier, he was crowned the fastest swimmer in the world after he won the Olympics men’s 50m freestyle final in a new Olympic record of 21.07sec on Sunday (Aug 1).
He finished ahead of France’s Florent Manaudou (21.55) and Brazilian Bruno Fratus (21.57).
Touted as Michael Phelps’ successor, the 24-year-old Dressel has been making waves at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre. His first gold came in the men’s 4x100m free relay on Monday. He won the 100m free in an Olympic record of 47.02 on Thursday, before setting a new 100m butterfly world record of 49.45 a day later.
Dressel did not have it all his way though. In the mixed 4x100m medley relay, a poor line-up cost the Americans as they finished fifth as Great Britain took gold and set a world record of 3:37.58. He did not swim in the 4x200m freestyle relay.