Germany’s Marco Koch Denies Gyurta’s Four-Peat in 200 Breaststroke

Germany’s Marco Koch swam away with the victory today in the men’s 200m breaststroke race, winning his country’s first gold of these world championships.  His time of 2:07.76 is the second fastest on the year and was swift enough to deny Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta of a four-peat in the event.  Gyurta has been the gold medalist in the men’s 200m breaststroke in the past three long course world championships.

In his post-race interview, Koch actually expresses disappointment in his time, stating he “thought a world record would be needed to win the race.”  He described his race strategy as “going 2 lengths easy, then starting to improve on the 3rd length.”

The strategy worked, as Koch was able to get to the wall first to beat out both current short course world record holder Gyurta who earned bronze, as well as America’s Kevin Cordes, who would up with the silver.