Adam Peaty had been the launchpad of Team GB’s gold rush in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
But Britain’s wait for a first gold of these Games will have to wait for another day after he was agonisingly pipped to the Olympic title in the 100metre breaststroke by just two-hundredths of a second
This was supposed to be the talisman of the British swimming team’s crowning glory to become the only man aside from Michael Phelps to win a hat-trick of Olympic titles in an individual event.
Inside La Defense Arena, that defence was instead denied by the slightest of touches by the unheralded Nicolo Martinenghi.
In the aftermath of the defeat, he talked about having already won just to have made it to Paris after years of turmoil, mental-health battles and a reliance on alcohol.
There were tears but he insisted not of defeat. They were, he said, “because it took so much to get here”.
Peaty had been lost to swimming and had to be coaxed back into the pool by his coach Mel Marshall, with whom he has an occasionally combative relationship.
He claimed in Paris he had recaptured his love for the sport and suggested in the heats and the semi-finals that he was the man to beat.
But watched by his girlfriend Holly, daughter of the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and son George, holding a Union flag between them, the three-Peaty as it were wasn’t to be.
His time of 59.05 was way down on his better times but that is partly down to the vagaries of a Parisian pool created solely for these Games.
In my heart I have won, these are happy tears. I gave my absolute best every single day and I cannot be upset about that
He had a weak start but found himself neck and neck for the lead with China’s Qin Haiyang, who had arrived in Paris in a cloud of controversy as one of a group of swimmers who had tested positive for a banned substance but were cleared on contamination grounds.
The world record holder for the 200m, Qin had been expected to push Peaty to the line but, as that challenge faded, Peaty looked on course for the gold only to be agonisingly pipped.
He has talked very publicly of the spiral he endured in the wake of Tokyo.
Alluding to what he had gone through, he said: “It’s just incredibly hard. To win it once, and to win it again, and to win it again. And to try and find new ways to win it. Everything I have done to this point has happened for a reason. And I am so happy I can race the best in the world and come second. I couldn’t have done more.”
Max Litchfield suffered the agony of finishing fourth for a third successive Olympic Games in the final of the men’s 4x100m individual medley.
But the event belonged to France’s Leon Marchand, billed as the new Phelps of the pool with Phelps fittingly inside the venue.
The Frenchman, trained in the US by Phelps’ former coach Bob Bowman, just missed out on the world record but eclipsed Phelps’ long-standing Olympic mark.
The noise was deafening inside the 15,000-seater stadium, chants of “Leon” ringing out and shouts of “Allez” every time he popped out of the water during the breaststroke leg.
Afterwards, Litchfield, close to tears, said: “Gutted. I’ve given absolutely everything, emotionally, mentally, physically. I’ve given a best time and it’s just tough. Just the wrong side of it again. That’s sport, that’s life.”
Duncan Scott qualified second fastest for Monday’s final of the 200m freestyle and declared it would need the swim of his life to take down David Popivici. Matt Richards looked a little out of sorts but still made the final in seventh fastest.
