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Kristof Milak needed every inch of the men’s 100-meter butterfly to claim his second-ever gold medal at the Summer Olympics.
The Hungarian recovered from a slow start to beat out Canada’s Josh Liendo by nine-hundredths of a second.
Liendo was in front for most of the race, but his final stroke toward the wall did not time up perfectly. That allowed Milak to touch the wall first for gold.
Liendo and Ilya Kharun produced a two-three finish for Canada.
1. Kristof Milak (Hungary) – 49.90 seconds
2. Josh Liendo (Canada) – 49.99
3. Ilya Kharun (Canada) – 50.45
4. Noe Ponti (Switzerland) 50.55
5. Maxime Grousset (France) – 50.75
6. Nyls Korstanje (Netherlands) – 50.83
7. Matthew Temple (Australia) – 51.10
8. Naoki Mizunuma (Japan) – 51.11
Milak’s dream of an individual gold in Paris was in doubt through the first 50 meters of the race.
The Hungarian was in the middle of the contenders as they made the turn back to the wall. Liendo appeared to have a decent shot at winning until the end, but Milak timed his stroke up perfectly and out-touched the Canadian for the gold medal.
Milak’s win came a few days after he took second behind France’s Leon Marchand in the 200-meter butterfly.
Milak now has a gold and a silver in each of the butterfly events. He took second behind Caeleb Dressel of the United States in Tokyo. He is responsible for two of Hungary’s seven medals at the Paris Games.
Liendo and Kharun picked up Canada’s sixth and seventh medals in the swimming events with their silver-bronze finish. Kharun also took bronze in the 200-meter butterfly.
The United States did not have a finalist after Dressel’s failure to qualify, and more importantly for the Americans, Australia did not medal as the race for the most swimming medals comes to a close .