Liverpool's Stephen Parry ended Britain's eight-year wait for an
Olympic medal in the men's 200 metres butterfly in Athens on Tuesday night.
Parry produced a brilliant swim to record a new British record and claim the
bronze medal behind teenage sensation Michael Phelps and Japan's Takashi
Yamamoto.
It was the perfect morale booster for a British team already under pressure
for a worse than expected showing in the pool, and still haunted by the memory
of failing to return from Sydney without a single medal for the first time since
1936.
Parry had been the slowest qualifier for the semi-finals but broke his own
British record from lane eight in the semi-finals to qualify fastest for
Tuesday night's final.
The 27-year-old knew that was no guarantee of a medal however, with hot
favourite Phelps having qualified second quickest despite having contested the
thrilling 200m freestyle final against Ian Thorpe just 45 minutes earlier that
evening.
But after finishing sixth in the Olympic final four years ago and fourth in
the world championships in Barcelona last year, Parry finally forced his way
onto the podium with a time of one minute 55.52 seconds.
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