Italy's Thomas Ceccon denies American Ryan Murphy in 100 backstroke

PARIS -- World record holder Thomas Ceccon of Italy made a thrilling late surge to claim the men's 100 backstroke gold at the Paris Olympics on Monday.

The former world champion touched the wall in exactly 52 seconds, edging China's silver medalist Xu Jiayu by 0.32 of a second at La Defense Arena.

American Ryan Murphy took bronze and was brave in his bid for a second gold in the event eight years after being champion at the 2016 Rio Games.

Xu led for most of the race but Ceccon found another gear to condemn the veteran Chinese swimmer to a second 100m backstroke silver, eight years after he finished runner-up to Murphy.

--200m freestyle

Romania's David Popovici beat Britain's Matt Richards by a knife-edge 0.02 of a second to win gold in the men's 200 freestyle.

Luke Hobson of the United States took bronze, 0.07 of a second behind the winner.

Popovici, the 2022 world champion in Budapest, won in a time of one minute 44.72 seconds, having been behind until the final 50 in the second race of another raucous evening at the La Defense Arena.

Germany's 400 free champion Lukas Maertens led at the first turn, and Popovici dropped to third behind Richards at the 100 mark but was ahead again at 150 and took over at the front as Maertens faded to fifth.

Reigning Olympic champion Tom Dean failed to qualify for the event after finishing third at the British trials in April behind Richards and Duncan Scott, the Tokyo 2021 silver medalist.

--Reuters, Special to Field Level Media