Australian Men’s Medley Relay Win Bronze
Hayden Stoeckel, Christian Sprenger, Matt Targett and James Magnussen have won bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay – Australia’s first men’s relay medal of these Olympic Games.
The Australians finished in 3:31.58 to finish behind the USA (3:29.35) and Japan (3:31.26). Western Australian swimmer Tommaso D’Orsogna picked up bronze in the medley relay, having swum the freestyle leg in the morning heat. D’Orsogna becomes WA’s second medallist of the London Olympics to date, joining fellow swimmer Blair Evans (silver women’s 4x200m relay).
With the winners of the individual 100m backstroke, butterfly and freestyle (and the bronze medallist in the breaststroke) in their team, the Americans were always going to be very tough to beat. And so it proved. The gold medal, in his last Olympic swim, was the 18th of Michael Phelps’ remarkable career. He has 22 medals in total.
Australia was second in the same race in Beijing with Stoeckel joined by Brenton Rickard, Andrew Lauterstein and Eamon Sullivan. Sprenger and Targett swam the breaststroke and freestyle leg in the heats in Beijing too.
For Sprenger and Magnussen the medal was their second of the Games following silvers in the 100m breaststroke and freestyle events respectively. The team was assisted into the final by Rickard and Tommaso D’Orsogna who swam breaststroke and freestyle in the heats.
Tonight, Stoeckel (53.71) was fifth after his leg, a position Sprenger (59.05) consolidated before Targett, who hadn’t even qualified for London in that stroke, moved them to fourth with a strong 51.60. That left Magnussen (47.22) with some work to do but ‘the Missile’ gave it his all and moved his team into the medals.
Targett said he was so proud to be part of another medal winning relay team.
“It’s a great way to finish the week here as part of this medley relay team with such a great bunch of guys,” Targett said.
“And to be swimming against Michael Phelps in his last race ever is pretty special.”
The Australians have ended the meet with 10 medals – a gold, six silver and three bronze to finish equal third on the overall swimming medal table.