Fifth in his semi-final in 1’56”43, Mewen Tomac qualified on time for the final of the 200m backstroke with the seventh time overall. On the other hand, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard took last place in his semi-final and will not see the final.
Mewen Tomac qualified for the 200m backstroke final at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday night, while Yohann Ndoye-Brouard was eliminated in the semi-finals. Tomac, 5th in the distance at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest and 4th the following year in Fukuoka, clocked the 7th fastest time in the semi-finals in 1 min 56 sec 43, three days after being eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke.
His partner Ndoye-Brouard, 7th on Monday in the round trip, only achieved the 16th time in 1 min 58 sec 65. Having started quickly, he dropped out in the second half of the race.
In the absence of Russian Evgeny Rylov, crowned over the distance in Tokyo in 2021 but banned due to his support for the war in Ukraine, Hungarian Hubert Kos was the fastest in the semi-finals (1:55.96) ahead of Swiss Roman Mityukov.
The big surprise came from the elimination of American Ryan Murphy, holder of the best world time of the year, Olympic champion in the 200m backstroke in 2016 and Olympic vice-champion in 2021: he only achieved the 10th time. The final is scheduled for Thursday at 8:38 p.m.
