West Country quartet retain relay title to win gold
The men's 4-by-200 metre freestyle swimmers retained their title in style
James Guy, Tom Dean, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott retained their men's 4x200 metres freestyle relay title to give Team GB their first Olympic gold of the Paris Games in the pool.
Richards, who currently lives in Bath, had come within two-hundredths of a second of winning the individual event, settling instead for silver, as did Adam Peaty, who lost by an identical margin in the men's 100 metres breaststroke.
Team Bath's Tom Dean, who joined the British Swimming National Centre Bath in 2018, now has three Olympic golds.
James Guy, who went to Millfield School in Somerset has three silvers.
Kieran Bird, who is based in Bath, and Jack McMillan from Northern Ireland will also receive medals having filled in for Richards and Scott in the morning heats.
But there was no need for a photo finish on Tuesday evening as, while Team GB led by just half a second after the final exchange, Scott pulled away on the anchor leg to seal an ultimately comfortable win.
A time of six minutes and 59.43 seconds was 1.35 secs ahead of runners-up the United States while bronze medallists Australia were a further 1.2 seconds back.
Scott's leg of 1min 43.95 secs was the race's fastest and would have won him gold in the individual event on Monday, when he finished a disappointing fourth, just 0.08s off bronze and 0.15s off top spot.
In being part of the first swimming team in history to defend an Olympic relay title with the same quartet, Scott joined fellow Scot Sir Chris Hoy on seven Olympic medals - only Sir Bradley Wiggins and Sir Jason Kenny have more.
"I'm nowhere near the level of athlete Chris Hoy has been, I think that's taking away from what he's achieved," said Scott, who has won two golds to Hoy's six.
"I don't think I should ever be compared to Sir Chris Hoy. He's well above what I've achieved. It's pretty cool in terms of numbers but he's got quite a few better colours than I do.
"I've had so many medals won by relay team-mates, I can't thank them enough for what they've done. They put me in a phenomenal position like they always do."