Fired-up Kent drives so close to gold

Dean Kent celebrates after swimming the race of his life last night. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Dean Kent swam as close as he could to the race of his life but came up 0.35s short in claiming 200m individual medley silver last night.

In or near the lead throughout, Kent faded only slightly over the final 50m freestyle leg as Scot Gregor Tait stormed home to snatch gold from the emotionally charged New Zealander.

A strong butterfly leg had Kent just behind Australian hope Leith Brodie after the first 50m.

He then edged to the lead with his expected surge on the backstroke leg as Bradley Ally (Barbados) gave plenty of cheek in working through to second.

The pain then kicked in as Kent pushed on to the breaststroke.

He held his form well to turn for the finish 0.58s ahead of Tait.

With 25m to swim Kent was still ahead but could not hold off the Scot in his favoured stroke as he surged to the wall to win and continue Scotland's outstanding meet.

The Scots have now claimed six golds and a total of 11 medals altogether, putting them third behind Australia and England.

Kent did have the satisfaction of improving from his trifle disappointing fourth place in his more favoured 400m medley 24 hours earlier.

He also had the bonus of dipping under the national record he set in Athens by 0.23s, recording 2m 01.08s.

"Obviously, I would have liked gold but not being the strongest freestyle swimmer told in the end," said Kent. "At 150m I thought I had done enough. I was really hurting.

"You are always stinging, it is just a case of when it hits you. My aim was to swim low 26 [26s] for the fly, which I did."

Kent said that 10m into the breaststroke leg the pain kicked in, making it a case of keeping going and surviving.

"It's what you have to do. It was hard mentally, emotionally, to get up for the meet," said Kent in a passing reference to the death of his father Paul last year. "It has been a tough six months. It was bloody hard out there but I'm sure Dad would have been proud with what I did.

"It was hard to gather myself after the 400. I did not get much sleep last night.

"Yeah, it was pretty heartbreaking. I tried to give it everything," he said. "But, look at me, I'm built for the 400, not the 200, which makes it pretty good."

Kent at least had the satisfaction of forcing yet another Australian off the dais as Brodie faded to fourth behind Canadian Brian Johns, who overcame a slow start and an average butterfly leg to edge past Brodie over the final 50m.

Kent's silver was the first won by the swim team and took their medal tally to six, including the gold and bronze won by Moss Burmester.

His piece of silver hanging proudly around his neck and clutching his bunch of flowers, Kent was warmly received by the huge crowd.

He paused in front of the New Zealand cheer squad to take in their haka, much to the delight of the crowd.

He continued his walk around the pool, stopping for further hugs and congratulations from his many supporters aware of the emotionally draining times he has been through.

Kent's second-to-last-night effort continued the flying start the team were given by Burmester's 200m butterfly gold on opening night.

It came, oh so close to being a second gold for one New Zealand's great battlers.

Kent can look back on a job well done and look forward to next month's world short-course championship in China and with it the chance to again join the glory stakes.