SWIMMING icon Kirsty Coven­try kept her hopes for an eighth Olympic medal alive when she bat­tled her way into fourth place in the 200m back­stroke semi-fi­nals in the early hours of yes­ter­day at the 2016 Games in Rio.

Coven­try was set to bat­tle for a medal in the fi­nal in the early hours of this morn­ing.

She came fourth in 2mins 08:83s in a race won by Hun­gary’s Katinka Hosszu in a time of 2mins 06.03s.

Made­line Di­rado of United States was sec­ond in 2mins 07:53s with Aus­tralia’s Belinda Hock­ing tak­ing third po­si­tion in 2mins 07.83s.

Speak­ing to Zim­pa­pers’ Spencer Banda, who is in Rio, Coven­try said the thought of yes­ter­day’s race be­ing pos­si­bly her last one made her push harder.

“I just wanted to get my hand on the wall and all I was think­ing about is just swim as hard as you can, this could be the last swim and make it good and just get to the wall and I did. I was happy with the time,” said Coven­try.

“I just wanted to get my hand on the wall and all I was think­ing about is just swim as hard as you can, this could be the last swim and make it good and just get to the wall and I did. I was happy with the time,” said Coven­try.

The swimming icon said to­day’s race was for every­one who has been sup­port­ing her as she rep­re­sented the coun­try at the Games since 2000 just as a 17-yearold girl.

And she ad­mit­ted she was a bit ner­vous as she waited for the re­sults yes­ter­day.

“I was a lit­tle bit ner­vous, like hang­ing in there wait­ing for the re­sults to come out. They seemed to take for­ever, I was like come on please just let me in.

“And then when it came through I was like . . . thank good­ness.

“For me this race is about just say­ing thank you to every­one back home for their faith, their love and for be­liev­ing in me.

“No mat­ter what hap­pens to­mor­row (to­day) I am just proud that it could bring us this far,” she said.

Go­ing into the fi­nals, the swimming sensation said con­sid­er­ing the close times posted yes­ter­day any­thing was pos­si­ble.

Go­ing into the fi­nals, the swimming sensation said con­sid­er­ing the close times posted yes­ter­day any­thing was pos­si­ble.

“I think the amaz­ing thing of an Olympic fi­nal, is any­thing can hap­pen and we were all pretty close (dur­ing yes­ter­day’s semi-fi­nals).

“There is only like a sec­ond sep­a­rat­ing us in 200m, that’s not very much.

“So you know what’s go­ing to be the goal now is to try to get as close to that third place or sec­ond and gold you know.

“But again, for me, just mak­ing this fi­nal is huge and I am re­ally ex­cited about it and proud,” said Coven­try.

Coven­try, who has in­di­cated this will be her last Olympic Games, be­lieves she is leav­ing at the right time with a num­ber of ath­letes from var­i­ous dis­ci­plines mak­ing it to the global sport­ing show­case.

“I was talk­ing with Sharon our mas- sage ther­a­pist ear­lier, it’s such a good time for my ca­reer to be fin­ish­ing, we have had an amaz­ing team with our soc­cer girls and our eques­trian and our archery and shoot­ers.

“Our row­ers, too, and it’s re­ally given me a lot of en­cour­age­ment,” Coven­try said.

“Our row­ers, too, and it’s re­ally given me a lot of en­cour­age­ment,” Coven­try said.

In row­ing Micheen Thorny­croft’s will be out of to­day’s fi­nal af­ter she failed to make it into fi­nal A, which con­sists of the top six boats that will fight for medals.

Thorny­croft put up a re­mark­able performance on Tues­day to book her place in the women’s sin­gle sculls A/B1 semi-fi­nals.

How­ever, yes­ter­day she came fifth and only the top three from A/B1 semi-fi­nal and A/B2 pro­ceeded to fi­nal A.

THREE WESTERN lead­ers made big bets — over­es­tim­at­ing their own polit­ical skills and under­es­tim­at­ing the anti-incum­bent mood — that appear to be back­fir­ing in rapid suc­ces­sion. Pres­id­ent Biden should study what’s hap­pen­ing in Paris and Lon­don as he weighs whether to con­tinue his cam­paign.

French Pres­id­ent Emmanuel Mac­ron was humi­li­ated Sunday in the first round of snap par­lia­ment­ary elec­tions that he called in hopes of get­ting a fresh man­date. His cent­rist alli­ance fin­ished a dis­tant third behind the far-right National Rally and the left-wing New Pop­u­lar Front. Mr. Mac­ron gambled that French voters would coalesce behind him to fend off the pro­spect of the first far-right gov­ern­ment since World War II, as they did in 2017 and 2022. Instead, Mar­ine Le Pen’s National Rally appears within strik­ing dis­tance of a par­lia­ment­ary major­ity.

Across the Eng­lish Chan­nel, Prime Min­is­ter Rishi Sunak had until next year to call elec­tions in Bri­tain but picked July 4. Now, he looks cer­tain to be ous­ted on Thursday. Polls show the Con­ser­vat­ive Party might wind up with the few­est seats since its found­ing in 1834. After 14 years in power, and five prime min­is­ters in eight years, the Tor­ies have worn out their wel­come, and they’ve run a scler­otic cam­paign that has only under­scored internal divi­sions.

Across the Eng­lish Chan­nel, Prime Min­is­ter Rishi Sunak had until next year to call elec­tions in Bri­tain but picked July 4. Now, he looks cer­tain to be ous­ted on Thursday. Polls show the Con­ser­vat­ive Party might wind up with the few­est seats since its found­ing in 1834. After 14 years in power, and five prime min­is­ters in eight years, the Tor­ies have worn out their wel­come, and they’ve run a scler­otic cam­paign that has only under­scored internal divi­sions.

On this side of the Atlantic, Mr. Biden deman­ded the earli­est-ever gen­eral elec­tion pres­id­en­tial debate. His team ima­gined a face-to-face clash with Don­ald Trump would give him an oppor­tun­ity to assuage fears about his age and stam­ina while draw­ing atten­tion to the bin­ary choice before voters. The pres­id­ent’s advisers got the accom­mod­a­tions they deman­ded, includ­ing muted micro­phones and no stu­dio audi­ence. Instead, des­pite a week of pre­par­a­tion and rest, Mr. Biden’s per­form­ance ignited clam­or­ing for him to end his cam­paign.

On this side of the Atlantic, Mr. Biden deman­ded the earli­est-ever gen­eral elec­tion pres­id­en­tial debate. His team ima­gined a face-to-face clash with Don­ald Trump would give him an oppor­tun­ity to assuage fears about his age and stam­ina while draw­ing atten­tion to the bin­ary choice before voters. The pres­id­ent’s advisers got the accom­mod­a­tions they deman­ded, includ­ing muted micro­phones and no stu­dio audi­ence. Instead, des­pite a week of pre­par­a­tion and rest, Mr. Biden’s per­form­ance ignited clam­or­ing for him to end his cam­paign.

Paris, Lon­don and Wash­ing­ton have dis­tinct polit­ical cul­tures and insti­tu­tions, and each of these races is dif­fer­ent. But they’re nev­er­the­less affected by a shared geo­pol­it­ical weather sys­tem. The domestic polit­ics of these three nuc­lear powers are more closely inter­twined than they may appear. That’s why the Brexit ref­er­en­dum in June 2016 fore­shad­owed Mr. Trump’s vic­tory five months later.

Though most Brits now regret leav­ing the European Union, the anti-estab­lish­ment mood still per­vades the West­ern world. France, Bri­tain and the United States have been shaken by the pan­demic, infla­tion, Rus­sia’s full-scale inva­sion of Ukraine and strong anti-immig­ra­tion sen­ti­ment. That’s why Labour leader Keir Starmer, poised to be Bri­tain’s next prime min­is­ter, has attacked Mr. Sunak from the right on this issue, call­ing him “the most lib­eral prime min­is­ter we’ve ever had on immig­ra­tion.”