Ervin now swimming’s golden oldie
OLYMPICS USAswimmerAnthony Ervin clinched his second gold medal of the games when he won the 50m freestyle final in 21.40secs — and also relieved his legendary team-mate Michael Phelps of one of his more off-beat records. At the age of 35, Ervin,who was born in Hollywood and still lives in California, has become the oldest individual Olympic gold medal winner in swimming history, a title until now held by 31-year-old Phelps, who took five golds and a silver away from Rio.
Ervin had already won a gold in the 4 x 100m relay, although he did not actually swim in the final (he had earlier helped the team through in the heats.)
In sailing, New Zealander Jo Aleh won silver with her crew-mate Polly Powrie in the the women’s 470 class.
The duo had been in second place overall heading into the race, but were never in a position to take gold as the British pair of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark were too far ahead and had already secured the top spot.
Aleh, 30, and Powrie went into the Rio Games as defending champions from London 2012 and won four of the 11 races, more than any other crew,. However, they also suffered two disqualifications which killed off their gold medal chances and any hope of back-to-back gold medals.
Aleh, who was born and still lives in Auckland, is the daughter of an Israeli father, Shuki Shukrun and a Britishborn mother Daniella Aleh, a former Israeli soldier.
Just before her ninth birthday, Aleh was so impressed by the New Zealand victory in the 1995 America’s Cup that she asked her father if she could learn to sail. The rest is history.