Kosuke Hagino held off a late challenge from American Chase Kalisz to win Japan's first gold medal of the 2016 Rio Olympics in the men's 400-meter individual medley on Saturday.
Hagino finished in a time of 4 minutes, 6.5 seconds, while world champion Daiya Seto finished third in 4:09.71 to give Japan two swimmers on the same Olympic podium for the first time in 60 years.
"I knew I had something left," said the 21-year-old Hagino, who ended a run of five straight American champions in the event. "I'm terrible at breaststroke so I kept something back for the final freestyle.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.