| | Event type

200 metres Breaststroke, Men

Date	12 – 14 August 2008
Status	Olympic
Location	Beijing Guojia Youyong Zhongxin, Beijing Aolinpike Gongyuan, Beijing
Participants	52 from 38 countries

Between the two Olympic Games of 2004 and 2008 breaststroke swimming had turned into a personal duel between the man who had won both Olympic titles in Athens, Kosuke Kitajima of Japan, and America’s Brendan Hansen who had beaten Kitajima in all their recent major championship clashes. Hansen was not in the same form as previous years and was not included in the US team for this event leaving Brenton Rickard of Australia as the most likely threat to the Japanese champion although in truth there was no one capable of challenging Kitajima. The Japanese swimmer cruised with little effort in his heat but then beat the Olympic record in both the semi-final and final to retain his title and seal his place amongst the greats of breaststroke swimming. No man had ever before retained both Olympic breaststroke titles.

Pos	Swimmer	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	Kosuke Kitajima	JPN	2:09.89 (4 h7)	2:08.61 (1 h1)	2:07.64 (1)	Gold
2	Brenton Rickard	AUS	2:11.00 (5 h6)	2:09.72 (2 h2)	2:08.88 (2)	Silver
3	Hugues Duboscq	FRA	2:09.42 (3 h7)	2:09.97 (4 h1)	2:08.94 (3)	Bronze
4	Mike Brown	CAN	2:09.84 (1 h6)	2:08.84 (1 h2)	2:09.03 (4)
5	Dániel Gyurta	HUN	2:08.68 (1 h7)	2:09.73 (3 h2)	2:09.22 (5)
6	Scott Spann	USA	2:10.61 (2 h5)	2:09.08 (2 h1)	2:09.76 (6)
7	Loris Facci	ITA	2:09.12 (2 h7)	2:09.75 (4 h2)	2:10.57 (7)
8	Paolo Bossini	ITA	2:08.98 (1 h5)	2:09.95 (3 h1)	2:11.48 (8)
9	Neil Versfeld	RSA	2:10.50 (4 h6)	2:10.06 (5 h2)	–
10	Eric Shanteau	USA	2:10.29 (2 h6)	2:10.10 (6 h2)	–
11	Andrew Bree	IRL	2:10.91 (1 h4)	2:10.16 (5 h1)	–
12	William Diering	RSA	2:10.39 (3 h6)	2:10.21 (6 h1)	–
13	Kris Gilchrist	GBR	2:11.13 (3 h5)	2:10.27 (7 h2)	–
14	Ihor Borysyk	UKR	2:11.08 (6 h7)	2:10.99 (7 h1)	–
15	Vlad Polyakov	KAZ	2:10.83 (5 h7)	2:11.87 (8 h2)	–
16	Glenn Snyders	NZL	2:11.19 (2 h4)	2:12.07 (8 h1)	–
=17	Alexander Dale Oen	NOR	2:11.30 (6 h6)	–	–
=17	Yuta Suenaga	JPN	2:11.30 (7 h7)	–	–
19	Thiago Pereira	BRA	2:11.40 (1 h3)	–	–
20	Tom Be'eri	ISR	2:11.44 (2 h3)	–	–
21	Hunor Mate	AUT	2:11.56 (3 h4)	–	–
22	Valeriy Dymo	UKR	2:11.65 (8 h7)	–	–
23	Grigory Falko	RUS	2:11.88 (4 h5)	–	–
24	Mihail Aleksandrov	BUL	2:11.94 (5 h5)	–	–
25	Yevgeny Ryzhkov	KAZ	2:12.44 (4 h4)	–	–
26	Christian Sprenger	AUS	2:12.56 (6 h5)	–	–
27	Melki Álvarez	ESP	2:12.59 (3 h3)	–	–
28	Julien Nicolardot	FRA	2:12.76 (5 h4)	–	–
29	Mathieu Bois	CAN	2:12.87 (7 h5)	–	–
30	Henrique Barbosa	BRA	2:12.99 (7 h6)	–	–
31	Edvinas Dautartas	LTU	2:13.11 (1 h1)	–	–
32	Carlos Almeida	POR	2:13.34 (1 h2)	–	–
33	Chris Christensen	DEN	2:13.92 (8 h6)	–	–
34	Sergio García	ESP	2:14.30 (6 h4)	–	–
35	Maxim Podoprigora	AUT	2:14.43 (7 h4)	–	–
36	Sandeep Sejwal	IND	2:15.24 (2 h1)	–	–
37	James Kirton	GBR	2:15.25 (8 h4)	–	–
38	Jakob Sveinsson	ISL	2:15.58 (2 h2)	–	–
39	Jiří Jedlička	CZE	2:15.79 (4 h3)	–	–
40	Laurent Carnol	LUX	2:15.87 (3 h2)	–	–
41	Romanos Alyfantis	GRE	2:16.04 (5 h3)	–	–
42	Sofiane Daid	ALG	2:16.15 (6 h3)	–	–
43	Sin Su-Jong	KOR	2:16.21 (4 h2)	–	–
44	Lai Zhongjian	CHN	2:16.28 (7 h3)	–	–
45	Aleksey Zinovyev	RUS	2:16.40 (8 h5)	–	–
46	Martti Aljand	EST	2:16.52 (5 h2)	–	–
47	Miguel Molina	PHI	2:16.94 (6 h2)	–	–
48	Robin van Aggele	NED	2:17.14 (8 h3)	–	–
49	Wang Wei-Wen	TPE	2:17.20 (7 h2)	–	–
50	Leopoldo Andara	VEN	2:17.77 (3 h1)	–	–
51	Ömer Aslanoğlu	TUR	2:17.93 (4 h1)	–	–
52	Sergio Ferreyra	ARG	2:20.10 (5 h1)	–	–
DNS	Valentin Preda	ROU	– (DNS h2)	–	–

Round One (12 August 2008)

Fastest 16 swimmers advanced to semi-finals

Heat One (19:25)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	4	Edvinas Dautartas	LTU	29.81 (1) 33.40 (1)	1:03.21 (1) 34.28 (1)	1:37.49 (1) 35.62 (1)	2:13.11	0.81
2	6	Sandeep Sejwal	IND	30.26 (2) 34.02 (2)	1:04.28 (2) 34.87 (3)	1:39.15 (2) 36.09 (4)	2:15.24	0.85
3	2	Leopoldo Andara	VEN	31.85 (5) 35.62 (5)	1:07.47 (5) 34.59 (2)	1:42.06 (4) 35.71 (2)	2:17.77	0.81
4	5	Ömer Aslanoğlu	TUR	31.08 (3) 34.68 (3)	1:05.76 (3) 36.14 (5)	1:41.90 (3) 36.03 (3)	2:17.93	0.77
5	3	Sergio Ferreyra	ARG	31.34 (4) 34.97 (4)	1:06.31 (4) 36.09 (4)	1:42.40 (5) 37.70 (5)	2:20.10	0.66

Heat Two (19:29)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	4	Carlos Almeida	POR	30.64 (1) 33.94 (1)	1:04.58 (1) 33.83 (1)	1:38.41 (1) 34.93 (3)	2:13.34	0.80
2	3	Jakob Sveinsson	ISL	30.67 (2) 34.34 (=2)	1:05.01 (2) 34.91 (4)	1:39.92 (2) 35.66 (5)	2:15.58	0.87
3	8	Laurent Carnol	LUX	31.33 (6) 34.86 (6)	1:06.19 (6) 34.82 (3)	1:41.01 (5) 34.86 (2)	2:15.87	0.78
4	5	Sin Su-Jong	KOR	31.74 (7) 34.66 (5)	1:06.40 (7) 35.07 (5)	1:41.47 (6) 34.74 (1)	2:16.21	0.80
5	6	Martti Aljand	EST	31.16 (4) 34.91 (7)	1:06.07 (5) 35.46 (7)	1:41.53 (7) 34.99 (4)	2:16.52	0.70
6	2	Miguel Molina	PHI	30.84 (3) 34.34 (=2)	1:05.18 (3) 34.80 (2)	1:39.98 (3) 36.96 (7)	2:16.94	0.71
7	1	Wang Wei-Wen	TPE	31.19 (5) 34.49 (4)	1:05.68 (4) 35.25 (6)	1:40.93 (4) 36.27 (6)	2:17.20	0.70
DNS	7	Valentin Preda	ROU	– (–) –	– (–) –	– (–) –	–	–

Heat Three (19:33)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	3	Thiago Pereira	BRA	29.96 (2) 33.12 (=1)	1:03.08 (1) 33.60 (1)	1:36.68 (1) 34.72 (2)	2:11.40	0.88
2	5	Tom Be'eri	ISR	30.20 (4) 33.12 (=1)	1:03.32 (2) 33.78 (2)	1:37.10 (2) 34.34 (1)	2:11.44	0.78
3	4	Melki Álvarez	ESP	30.44 (5) 33.46 (3)	1:03.90 (4) 33.88 (3)	1:37.78 (3) 34.81 (3)	2:12.59	0.89
4	2	Jiří Jedlička	CZE	30.03 (3) 33.83 (4)	1:03.86 (3) 34.93 (5)	1:38.79 (4) 37.00 (8)	2:15.79	0.88
5	8	Romanos Alyfantis	GRE	30.61 (6) 34.86 (=7)	1:05.47 (7) 35.31 (6)	1:40.78 (7) 35.26 (5)	2:16.04	0.80
6	7	Sofiane Daid	ALG	30.97 (7) 34.86 (=7)	1:05.83 (8) 35.50 (7)	1:41.33 (8) 34.82 (4)	2:16.15	0.77
7	6	Lai Zhongjian	CHN	31.15 (8) 34.23 (5)	1:05.38 (6) 34.77 (4)	1:40.15 (5) 36.13 (6)	2:16.28	0.72
8	1	Robin van Aggele	NED	29.80 (1) 34.67 (6)	1:04.47 (5) 35.74 (8)	1:40.21 (6) 36.93 (7)	2:17.14	0.79

Heat Four (19:37)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	7	Andrew Bree	IRL	29.96 (1) 32.87 (1)	1:02.83 (1) 33.75 (2)	1:36.58 (1) 34.33 (3)	2:10.91	0.79	Q
2	6	Glenn Snyders	NZL	30.06 (2) 33.22 (3)	1:03.28 (=2) 34.05 (3)	1:37.33 (2) 33.86 (2)	2:11.19	0.77	Q
3	1	Hunor Mate	AUT	30.39 (7) 33.95 (7)	1:04.34 (7) 33.62 (1)	1:37.96 (5) 33.60 (1)	2:11.56	0.75
4	5	Yevgeny Ryzhkov	KAZ	30.33 (6) 32.95 (2)	1:03.28 (=2) 34.07 (4)	1:37.35 (3) 35.09 (5)	2:12.44	0.73
5	8	Julien Nicolardot	FRA	30.30 (5) 33.52 (4)	1:03.82 (4) 34.09 (5)	1:37.91 (4) 34.85 (4)	2:12.76	0.73
6	3	Sergio García	ESP	30.25 (4) 33.93 (6)	1:04.18 (6) 34.73 (7)	1:38.91 (7) 35.39 (6)	2:14.30	0.87
7	2	Maxim Podoprigora	AUT	30.47 (8) 33.98 (8)	1:04.45 (8) 34.50 (6)	1:38.95 (8) 35.48 (7)	2:14.43	0.76
8	4	James Kirton	GBR	30.12 (3) 33.74 (5)	1:03.86 (5) 34.97 (8)	1:38.83 (6) 36.42 (8)	2:15.25	0.75

Heat Five (19:41)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	2	Paolo Bossini	ITA	29.71 (4) 32.89 (1)	1:02.60 (1) 32.83 (1)	1:35.43 (1) 33.55 (1)	2:08.98	0.89	QOR
2	5	Scott Spann	USA	29.59 (2) 33.27 (3)	1:02.86 (3) 34.11 (4)	1:36.97 (3) 33.64 (2)	2:10.61	0.69	Q
3	3	Kris Gilchrist	GBR	29.57 (1) 33.24 (2)	1:02.81 (2) 33.65 (2)	1:36.46 (2) 34.67 (5)	2:11.13	0.89	Q
4	4	Grigory Falko	RUS	30.03 (7) 33.31 (4)	1:03.34 (=4) 33.96 (3)	1:37.30 (4) 34.58 (4)	2:11.88	0.71
5	8	Mihail Aleksandrov	BUL	29.66 (3) 33.73 (7)	1:03.39 (6) 34.23 (5)	1:37.62 (5) 34.32 (3)	2:11.94	0.74
6	6	Christian Sprenger	AUS	29.78 (5) 33.66 (6)	1:03.44 (7) 34.28 (6)	1:37.72 (6) 34.84 (6)	2:12.56	0.68
7	1	Mathieu Bois	CAN	29.84 (6) 33.50 (5)	1:03.34 (=4) 34.49 (7)	1:37.83 (7) 35.04 (7)	2:12.87	0.71
8	7	Aleksey Zinovyev	RUS	30.81 (8) 34.25 (8)	1:05.06 (8) 35.29 (8)	1:40.35 (8) 36.05 (8)	2:16.40	0.82

Heat Six (19:45)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	6	Mike Brown	CAN	29.50 (4) 32.84 (1)	1:02.34 (1) 33.37 (1)	1:35.71 (1) 34.13 (4)	2:09.84	0.74	Q
2	3	Eric Shanteau	USA	30.08 (7) 32.99 (2)	1:03.07 (5) 33.39 (=2)	1:36.46 (2) 33.83 (=1)	2:10.29	0.76	Q
3	2	William Diering	RSA	29.41 (3) 33.59 (7)	1:03.00 (4) 33.56 (4)	1:36.56 (3) 33.83 (=1)	2:10.39	0.65	Q
4	7	Neil Versfeld	RSA	29.87 (6) 33.33 (5)	1:03.20 (6) 33.39 (=2)	1:36.59 (=5) 33.91 (3)	2:10.50	0.66	Q
5	4	Brenton Rickard	AUS	29.35 (2) 33.11 (3)	1:02.46 (2) 34.12 (=6)	1:36.58 (4) 34.42 (5)	2:11.00	0.91	Q
6	5	Alexander Dale Oen	NOR	29.23 (1) 33.24 (4)	1:02.47 (3) 34.12 (=6)	1:36.59 (=5) 34.71 (6)	2:11.30	0.74
7	1	Henrique Barbosa	BRA	29.66 (5) 33.65 (8)	1:03.31 (7) 34.01 (5)	1:37.32 (7) 35.67 (8)	2:12.99	0.76
8	8	Chris Christensen	DEN	30.89 (8) 33.52 (6)	1:04.41 (8) 34.63 (8)	1:39.04 (8) 34.88 (7)	2:13.92	0.82

Heat Seven (19:49)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	6	Dániel Gyurta	HUN	29.91 (=5) 33.03 (3)	1:02.94 (3) 32.84 (=1)	1:35.78 (1) 32.90 (1)	2:08.68	0.80	QOR
2	2	Loris Facci	ITA	29.78 (4) 33.25 (4)	1:03.03 (4) 32.84 (=1)	1:35.87 (3) 33.25 (2)	2:09.12	0.85	Q
3	5	Hugues Duboscq	FRA	29.51 (1) 32.82 (1)	1:02.33 (1) 33.51 (3)	1:35.84 (2) 33.58 (3)	2:09.42	0.74	Q
4	4	Kosuke Kitajima	JPN	29.60 (3) 32.85 (2)	1:02.45 (2) 33.59 (5)	1:36.04 (4) 33.85 (4)	2:09.89	0.73	Q
5	7	Vlad Polyakov	KAZ	29.53 (2) 33.74 (8)	1:03.27 (5) 33.65 (6)	1:36.92 (5) 33.91 (6)	2:10.83	0.76	Q
6	1	Ihor Borysyk	UKR	30.09 (7) 33.35 (5)	1:03.44 (7) 33.56 (4)	1:37.00 (6) 34.08 (7)	2:11.08	0.86	Q
7	3	Yuta Suenaga	JPN	29.91 (=5) 33.41 (=6)	1:03.32 (6) 33.70 (7)	1:37.02 (7) 34.28 (8)	2:11.30	0.80
8	8	Valeriy Dymo	UKR	30.23 (8) 33.41 (=6)	1:03.64 (8) 34.13 (8)	1:37.77 (8) 33.88 (5)	2:11.65	0.77

Semi-Finals (13 August 2008)

Fastest eight swimmers advanced to final

Heat One (10:52)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	3	Kosuke Kitajima	JPN	29.16 (1) 32.34 (1)	1:01.50 (1) 32.83 (1)	1:34.33 (1) 34.28 (6)	2:08.61	0.77	QOR
2	2	Scott Spann	USA	29.29 (3) 32.77 (2)	1:02.06 (2) 33.50 (5)	1:35.56 (2) 33.52 (1)	2:09.08	0.71	Q
3	4	Paolo Bossini	ITA	29.96 (7) 32.81 (3)	1:02.77 (5) 33.31 (2)	1:36.08 (4) 33.87 (=2)	2:09.95	0.92	Q
4	5	Hugues Duboscq	FRA	29.23 (2) 32.97 (4)	1:02.20 (3) 33.56 (6)	1:35.76 (3) 34.21 (5)	2:09.97	0.74	Q
5	7	Andrew Bree	IRL	29.76 (5) 32.99 (5)	1:02.75 (4) 33.46 (3)	1:36.21 (5) 33.95 (4)	2:10.16	0.79
6	6	William Diering	RSA	29.63 (4) 33.24 (=6)	1:02.87 (6) 33.47 (4)	1:36.34 (6) 33.87 (=2)	2:10.21	0.66
7	1	Ihor Borysyk	UKR	29.84 (6) 33.24 (=6)	1:03.08 (7) 33.60 (7)	1:36.68 (7) 34.31 (7)	2:10.99	0.85
8	8	Glenn Snyders	NZL	29.99 (8) 33.62 (8)	1:03.61 (8) 34.08 (8)	1:37.69 (8) 34.38 (8)	2:12.07	0.79

Heat Two (10:58)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	3	Mike Brown	CAN	29.48 (2) 32.68 (1)	1:02.16 (2) 33.04 (1)	1:35.20 (1) 33.64 (4)	2:08.84	0.78	Q
2	1	Brenton Rickard	AUS	29.26 (1) 32.79 (2)	1:02.05 (1) 33.58 (6)	1:35.63 (2) 34.09 (7)	2:09.72	0.86	Q
3	4	Dániel Gyurta	HUN	29.97 (6) 33.36 (6)	1:03.33 (6) 33.16 (3)	1:36.49 (4) 33.24 (2)	2:09.73	0.81	Q
4	5	Loris Facci	ITA	30.36 (8) 33.38 (7)	1:03.74 (7) 33.09 (2)	1:36.83 (7) 32.92 (1)	2:09.75	0.85	Q
5	2	Neil Versfeld	RSA	29.66 (3) 33.19 (4)	1:02.85 (4) 33.36 (4)	1:36.21 (3) 33.85 (6)	2:10.06	0.69
6	6	Eric Shanteau	USA	30.08 (7) 33.24 (5)	1:03.32 (5) 33.39 (5)	1:36.71 (6) 33.39 (3)	2:10.10	0.74
7	8	Kris Gilchrist	GBR	29.80 (4) 33.03 (3)	1:02.83 (3) 33.69 (7)	1:36.52 (5) 33.75 (5)	2:10.27	0.85
8	7	Vlad Polyakov	KAZ	29.96 (5) 33.79 (8)	1:03.75 (8) 33.95 (8)	1:37.70 (8) 34.17 (8)	2:11.87	0.77

Final (14 August 2008 — 10:02)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	50 m	100 m	150 m	Time	Reaction
1	4	Kosuke Kitajima	JPN	29.04 (1) 32.09 (1)	1:01.13 (1) 32.92 (1)	1:34.05 (1) 33.59 (2)	2:07.64	0.69	OR
2	6	Brenton Rickard	AUS	29.09 (2) 32.48 (2)	1:01.57 (2) 33.35 (5)	1:34.92 (3) 33.96 (5)	2:08.88	0.88
3	8	Hugues Duboscq	FRA	29.17 (3) 32.54 (3)	1:01.71 (3) 33.18 (4)	1:34.89 (2) 34.05 (6)	2:08.94	0.78
4	5	Mike Brown	CAN	29.43 (4) 32.62 (4)	1:02.05 (4) 33.16 (3)	1:35.21 (4) 33.82 (4)	2:09.03	0.77
5	2	Dániel Gyurta	HUN	29.86 (8) 33.08 (8)	1:02.94 (8) 32.95 (2)	1:35.89 (5) 33.33 (1)	2:09.22	0.80
6	3	Scott Spann	USA	29.48 (6) 32.74 (5)	1:02.22 (5) 33.84 (8)	1:36.06 (7) 33.70 (3)	2:09.76	0.74
7	7	Loris Facci	ITA	29.64 (7) 32.85 (6)	1:02.49 (7) 33.59 (=6)	1:36.08 (8) 34.49 (7)	2:10.57	0.84
8	1	Paolo Bossini	ITA	29.46 (5) 32.87 (7)	1:02.33 (6) 33.59 (=6)	1:35.92 (6) 35.56 (8)	2:11.48	0.84