TEEN RULES THE POOL Lithuanian Meilutyte bags the first ever Olympic gold for her country by winning 100m breaststroke; Agnel pips Lochte for the second time in as many days to claim gold in 200m freestyle

TEEN RULES THE POOL

Lithuanian Meilutyte bags the first ever Olympic gold for her country by winning 100m breaststroke; Agnel pips Lochte for the second time in as many days to claim gold in 200m freestyle

London: Lithuanian swimmer Ruta Meilutyte struck Olympic gold on Monday in the women’s 100 metres breaststroke aged just 15, capping a dramatic day in the pool where Frenchman Yannick Agnel also beat an American favourite to win the men’s 200 metres freestyle. On the third full day of competition in London, Chinese swimming sensation Ye Shiwen’s world record win in the 400m individual medley on Saturday raised eyebrows in the world’s media about the 16-year-old, prompting her to deny that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs. But it was heroics in the water that set ablaze the Olympic village, and in particular those of Meilutyte, the first swimmer from her country to win an Olympic medal. The Lithuanian had to do it the hard way, surviving a fierce challenge from American Rebecca Soni, the reigning world champion in the event, and just holding her off at the death. She, thereby, become the youngest winner of an Olympic swimming gold since Australia great Shane Gould enjoyed a triple triumph at the 1972 Munich Games. “I can’t believe it. It is too much for me,” she said after receiving her medal, before being whisked away from the waiting media. “It was hard and difficult. At the moment I can’t speak too much, but it means a lot to me and I’m so proud.” Meilutyte became the first swimmer to win an Olympic medal competing under the Lithuania flag, although she was not the first from the Baltic state. In 1980, at the Moscow Olympics, Lina Kaciusyte became Lithuania’s first champion when she won the 200m breaststroke, competing for the Soviet Union. Rebecca Soni, who had already come second in the event in Beijing four years ago, won silver again, securing her fourth medal. The bronze went to Japanese Olympic debutant Satomi Suzuki. Meilutyte’s victory, watched from the stands by her father and grandmother, provoked an outpouring of national pride in the small Baltic state of three million people, recovering from one of the deepest recessions in the European Union and still facing high unemployment and emigration rates. Lithuania’s president, Dalia Grybauskaite extended her stay in London to watch the final and cheered from the stands during a race that has dominated Lithuanian media. Meilutyte, virtually unknown in her homeland before the Olympics, became an instant national hero after winning a spot in the final against a stellar field that included Soni and Australia’s Leisel Jones, who started out as a 15-year-old in Sydney in 2000 and won the gold in Beijing. But it was the Lithuanian’s composure and her ability to focus on her own race that got her gold. “She is amazing at this, at blanking everything else out and just concentrating on what she has to do,” said her coach, Jon Rudd, who has trained her for three years. Agnel, a 20-year-old who reads the poetry of Charles Baudelaire between races to relax, captured a second gold medal in 24 hours after his stunning anchor leg won France the 4x100 freestyle relay the previous night. And he had to beat a stellar field including US world champion Ryan Lochte who ended up fourth. The United States caught up some ground on China in the medals rankings, however, with two late golds in the pool. Matt Grevers collected his first individual gold in the final of the men’s 100 metres backstroke while teenager Missy Franklin won the women’s 100 backstroke. It took the US gold tally to five after the third day, four golds behind leaders China.