James Guy, Tom Dean, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott retained their men’s 4×200 metres freestyle relay title to give Team GB their first Olympic gold of the Paris Games in the pool.

Richards 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.

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.