MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. Russian swimmers Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov who took home the Olympic gold and silver respectively in the men’s 100m backstroke in Tokyo, have achieved a historic result, Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said as quoted by the Sports Ministry’s press service.
Rylov became the first Russian in 25 years to win the Olympic gold in swimming. The last time Russian swimmers won was at the 1996 Olympics when Alexander Popov and Denis Pankratov had clinched the gold.
"[You] want to see such races again and again, that’s how stunning the battle of the two leaders of the Russian team was. Our athletes achieved a historic result. For the first time in 25 years, a Russian swimmer has earned a gold medal at the Olympic Games, while the gold and silver were not taken in single swimming final by our athletes since the 1980 Moscow Olympics. I congratulate the coaches of the Russian national team and the All-Russian Swimming Federation on this success," the sports minister stated.
He separately noted the conclusion of the final race — the two swimmers were separated by 0.02 seconds. "Our swimmers were incredibly powerful in the 100m backstroke final. It was obvious that Evgeny and Kliment were extremely intent on winning, while the fate of the gold at the finish was decided by the hundredths of seconds," the minister added.
The Tokyo Olympics will conclude on August 8.