Japan's Ai Shibata claimed a surprise gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle at the Athens Olympics on Friday, about half an hour after her compatriot Reiko Nakamura took the bronze in the women's 200-meter backstroke.
Ai Shibata swims to the gold medal in Friday's women's 800-meter freestyle event at the Summer Olympics in Athens. Shibata's victory marked the third swimming gold
medal at these Games for Japan.
Shibata's win and Japan's other successes in the pool have helped it to total 12 gold medals so far, the most for the nation since the Munich Games in 1972, when it ended with 13.
In her race, Shibata maintained second position behind pace-setting Laure Manaudou of France until she grabbed the lead just before the last turn and never looked back as she clocked 8 minutes, 24.54 seconds at the Olympic Aquatic Centre to win the first Games medal ever for Japan in a women's freestyle event.