Litchfield falls agonisingly short again

MAX LITCHFIELD had to hold back tears as he explained his agony at finishing fourth in the 400 metres individual medley for the second successive Olympics. The 26-year-old was less than a quarter of a second off winning what would have been Team GB’s first medal at Tokyo 2020. ‘It’s tough, so close yet so far,’ said an emotional Litchfield. ‘I don’t think there was too much wrong with it, just small things. I’ve done everything I can these last five years. It just wasn’t quite enough.’ American Chase Kalisz won gold ahead of his team-mate Jay Litherland. Litchfield (right) tied for fourth with Hungarian David Verraszto, 0.21sec off Australia’s Brendon Smith, who claimed the bronze. Litchfield, whose younger brother Joe swims in the 200m medley, has vowed to come back stronger for Paris 2024. ‘That was the case after coming fourth in Rio and it’s even more so this time,’ he added.

In the women’s 400m medley final, a tearful Aimee Willmott came home seventh in what is her third and final Games. ‘It’s not sad tears, it’s overcoming emotion,’ the 28-year-old insisted. ‘I just wanted to get out there and enjoy myself and it was so much fun. I finished seventh last time and I finished seventh again, so I can’t really be too grumpy. The big thing for me was that I did make it back.’ Team GB’s women’s 4x100 freestyle relay quartet set a new national record to finish fifth, as

Australia won with a new world record. Anna Hopkin, who swam a personal best on the opening leg, said: ‘To come away with the best time as a relay team, we couldn’t have done much more. ‘With this being only the third or fourth time we’ve raced together as this four, it’ll be interesting to see how far we can go.’ Great Britain bombed out of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay before the final after their gamble of resting star swimmers Duncan Scott and Tom Dean backfired.