Summer McIntosh emerged from a spectacular 2:01.99 World-Championship-record victory in the 200m butterfly with a wry smile on her face, a third gold in the bank but 0.18sec shy of the goal she and her coach had hooked their hopes on.

Liu Zige's 2:01.81 in a non-textile shiny suit in domestic racing home in China a couple of months before the performance-enhancing kit was banned stands to fight another day as World record - but not the best 200m butterfly there's ever been.

That is now McIntosh's 2:01.99 and though the arrow missed her mark today, an expletive fired into the bubbles beneath her breath before she hooked her arms over the lane line and covered her face with her hands. You could almost hear the fuel pouring back in through the sheer will in her head and heart after a near miss that delivered her third 200m 'fly World titles, after wins in 2022 and 2023.

The 18-year-old triple Olympic champion of Paris 2024 had composed herself by the time she confirmed that the goal was not just goal but Liu's mark. At Canadian trials last month in Victoria, she clocked 2:02.26, World Textile Best and Commonwealth Record - and so tantalisingly close to Liu's shiny bomb.

The full file is now part of the SOS Archive...