Dean on the Eurostar but won’t defend 200m title

Maidenhead's Tom Dean has booked his place on the Eurostar to this summer’s Olympic

Games in Paris – but has missed out on the chance to defend his 200m freestyle title.

In a race billed ‘as the most competitive in the history of domestic

British swimming’ at the

British Swimming Championships, Olympic champion Dean went up against incredibly strong competition in Matt

Richards and Duncan

Scott on Sunday.

With just two spots up for grabs at the Games for each individual event, 21-year-old Matt Richard took the 200m freestyle crown at the London Aquatics Centre in a time of 1 minute 44.69 seconds.

Duncan Scott, who claimed silver in the event at Tokyo, charged to the wall for silver this time out, just 0.06 seconds behind.

Dean was third in a time of 1 minute 45.09 seconds, meaning he won’t compete for the title in Paris.

However, his time, and that of James Guy in fourth place, means the same quartet that claimed the Olympic Men’s 4x200m freestyle gold together were inside the relay requirement to defend their title in the summer.

Dean had previously told the Advertiser of he was targeting an unprecedented five medals this summer to become Team GB's most decorated athlete at a single Games – but he admitted ‘we need the stars to align, and everything will have to go perfectly’ for this to happen.

The swimming star will get the chance to compete for glory in an individual event, after qualifying for the 200m individual medley this week by taking silver behind Scott.

He will also be part of the 4x100m freestyle relay quartet after the 23-year-old finishing third in another fiercely contested 100m freestyle – clocking a sub-48 second swim behind Richards and Scott.