No excuses from Scott as relay team fail to defend title

DUNCAN SCOTT said there were no excuses after Great Britain surprisingly lost their grip on the 4x200 freestyle title at swimming’s world championships in Gwangju as they were squeezed into fifth,

Chasing a third successive relay gold in the event, the 2016 Olympic silver medallists lay third after the Scot’s opening leg. But Calum Jervis, Tom Dean and James Guy’s efforts came up short as GB ended just six-hundredths of a second off the podium with Australia wrestling away their crown in a time of 7:00.85 with Russia beating the USA to silver.

“I’m delighted with my leg,” said Scott, who is set for one final crack at doubling his medal haul in tomorrow’s 4x100 medley relay. “But at the end of the day I’m just part of the team and everybody was doing their individual legs and I don’t think anyone had a bad swim. We swam very fast. It’s just that was a very fast race. It was a really solid effort and we’ve got to walk away proud.”

Luke Greenbank added to the British medal tally with bronze in the 200m backstroke with a personal best of 1.55.85 as Russia’s Evgeny Rylov eased to gold. His compatriot Yuliya Efimova won the women’s 200m breaststroke with Molly Renshaw fifth.

Three world records fell with Caeleb Dressel of the USA clocking 49.50 in the 100m butterfly semi- final to smash Michael Phelps’ 10-year-old record, while 17-year-old American Regan Smith swam 2:03.35 in the 200m backstroke semis and Russia’s Anton Chupkov defended his 200m breaststroke title in 2:06.12.