Rickard breaks Aussie drought to win silver

14 August 2008

Science graduate Brenton Rickard has become the first Australian man to win an Olympic breaststroke medal in 16 years by taking silver in the 200m in Beijing.

Rickard clocked 2:08.88 to finish second, improving on the previous bronze medal by Phil Rogers in the 100m in Barcelona in 1992.

Kosuke Kitajima (2:07.64) won the race, completing back to back Olympic breaststroke doubles after he conquered the world at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games four years ago.

It has been a fairytale Olympic debut for Rickard, the silver medal topping his fifth placing in the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week.

The former Monash University Swim Club member went into the Australian Olympic trials as the national record holder and favourite in the 100m breaststroke but ended up finishing fourth in Athens.

Rickard said he tried to keep his cool before stepping out onto the pool deck for Thursday's final.

"You try to save as much emotional energy before your race as you can because you're going to need it at the end," he told Channel 7.

"I just tried to keep myself calm ever since yesterday's semi so I thought I did that and came out and did a PB when it mattered most."

Rickard said he was "wrecked" and was stoked to have snatched second place.

"(My) heart was in the mouth a bit but to see second next to my name is just fantastic, I'm just so happy."