Olympics: Lütolf eighth in breaststroke final

Lütolf celebrates Switzerland's first swimming diploma since 1988 Keystone

Switzerland's Remo Lütolf has recorded another fast time in the 100 metres breaststroke, finishing eighth in the final and falling just seven hundredths of a second short of the Swiss record which he set on Saturday.

Simply reaching the last eight was a massive achievement for the 20-year-old from St Gallen, who became the first Swiss swimmer to contest an Olympic final since Dano Halsall and Stéphane Volery 12 years ago.

But although Lütolf was only expected to make up the numbers, he swam an extraordinarily fast first 50 metres, putting him in second place at the turn. The Swiss swimmer’s inability to maintain this pace for the final 50 metres was unsurprising – Lütolf usually specialises in the 50 metres breaststroke, but the event is not recognised at Olympic level.

Two of Lütolf’s team-mates succeeded in breaking their own Swiss records on Sunday, but neither were able to win a place in the finals.

In the men’s 400 metres medley heats, Yves Platel knocked more than two and a half seconds of his previous best time. His achievement was all the more impressive considering the broken knuckle which he suffered in training last week.

Ticino’s Flavia Rigamonti improved on her 400 metres freestyle record by more than four-tenths of a second. Rigamonti, who is thought to be one of Switzerland’s best medal hopes in the 800 metres freestyle discipline, missed out the 400 metres final by less than a second.

Rigamonti’s Ticino team-mate Chantal Strasser was further behind, missing the final by more than five seconds.

Philipp Gilgen and Agata Czaplicki were also unable to make it past the heats. Gilgen finished 35th in the men’s 100 metres backstroke, and now has only the men’s 4×100 metres medley relay to concentrate on. Czaplicki was 27th during the heats for the women’s 100 metres breaststroke. She too has a second chance in the 200 metres event.

swissinfo with agencies