Zhang Yufei stumbles in 200m fly defence
China's Zhang Yufei came up short in her title defence of the 200m butterfly, coming back third while relinquishing her Olympic record to eventual champion Summer McIntosh of Canada. Zhang, who earlier took bronze in the 100m butterfly, was in the chase at the halfway mark.  But McIntosh powered into a decisive lead by the final turn of the pool, while American Regan Smith also caught up with Zhang down the stretch to clinch silver. McIntosh touched the wall after two minutes and 3.03 seconds, smashing the previous record set in Tokyo by more than eight-tenths of a second. Zhang came back over two seconds later. The 26-year-old Jiangsu native has one more shot at gold in the 50m freestyle, which starts on Saturday. Later on Thursday evening, China added a bronze in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay.  Yang Junxuan and Li Bingjie, who were part of the quartet who struck gold in Tokyo, were joined by Ge Chutong and Liu Yaxin. They finished at just over seven minutes and 42 seconds, around four seconds behind winners Australia, while the United States took silver. _____________________________
Last updated: 2024-08-02 HKT 05:08 