There were two fourth-placed finishes and a British record but no more medals as Great Britain completed their world championships in Russia with a record haul of nine.
The men’s 4x100m medley – including the multi-medallists Adam Peaty and James Guy – were 0.17sec off bronze as they took 0.01sec off the 2009 British record, stopping the clock at 3:30.67sec.
That followed Hannah Miley’s near miss in the 400m individual medley, the Scot finishing the meet locked out of the medals by 2.27sec in 4:34.79.
The medley relay was unpredictable. Chris Walker-Hebborn handed over after the backstroke leg to Peaty, who hauled the squad from sixth to first with a blistering breaststroke leg of 57.72.
Peaty handed over to Guy, who was chosen ahead of the butterfly specialists to swim the penultimate leg, and, when he touched second, there was a chance of a British medal. It was a big ask for Ben Proud on freestyle, who was up against the Olympic champion, Nathan Adrian, and the 2015 silver medallist Cameron McEvoy among others, and it proved just beyond the 20-year-old.
Peaty, though, had again produced the sort of fearsome acceleration that has guided the 20-year-old to the 100m breaststroke world record and world title in 2015.
He said: “That’s when I get the job done and I wanted to give these guys the best possible chance coming home. With these guys at the back end I was like, ‘Right, there is no mercy here. Whoever is next to me is having it.’ That is the British side coming out of me. People at home will probably say we have failed coming fourth but I’d say look at the average age of us – 19, 20. There is so much room for improvement.
“Look at the teams that are medalling. They’ve got all the old guys on the front. They’ve got so much more experience, so much more knowhow to swim relays properly.”
It has been a historic meet for Peaty, who became Britain’s first triple world champion with his 50m-100m breaststroke double as well as gold in the mixed medley relay. “It’s been pretty good,” he said. “It’s what I train for and every day I get into the training pool I’ll think of winning all these medals.
“I can’t really put into one word what it is all about, how I can summarise it, but it’s been a really good meet for me.”
Guy, too, has made history as he became the first British man to win a freestyle world title in the 200m. That came after his silver in the 400m as well as chasing down the USA for victory in the 4x200m freestyle.
Of how he would have felt coming into the meet if he had known the outcome, the 19-year-old added: “I’d take it, I’d take that straightaway.”
Guy also explained how he remained focused: “It’s just like the Hulk: you see how he controls his anger, how he controls his emotions and that is what I tried to do really with my races and it worked.”
There were also bronze medals for Jazz Carlin in the 800m freestyle, Ross Murdoch in the 100m breaststroke and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in the 200m individual medley.
Britain exceeded the previous record hauls of eight in Barcelona in 2003 and Cali, Colombia, in 1975. At the previous worlds two years ago they managed only a solitary bronze.
The head coach, Bill Furniss, said: “I am pleased with it, we’ve made progress. One medal in Barcelona, nine here, five of them gold. It’s a very impressive week for us. This last session has been tougher, which puts it into context – it is not all plain sailing, it shows you how impressive the other achievements have been.
“I’ve had swimmers coming out this session with fourth and they are devastated and that is what I want. We are not just about making finals any more – we want to be difficult to beat. We want to be challenging for the podium and we have got that mindset starting to get into this team.”
