HUGE congrats to Clearwater’s own Robert Finke. The outstanding swimmer set a new world record in the 1,500m freestyle, making Tampa Bay immensely proud.
Finke was under world-record pace for the entire race and accelerated towards the finish. He touched in at 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds, breaking the record of 14.31.02 set by China’s Sun Yang at the 2012 London Games. Finke’s gold was the seventh for the U.S., pulling them into a tie with Australia for the top spot in the gold medal count, with only the 4×100 medley relays remaining.