Matt Richards missed out on a stunning Olympic gold by two hundredths of a second but took a thrilling silver in the 200m freestyle in Paris.

Out in lane one after only qualifying seventh fastest, Richards came agonisingly close as Romania’s rising star David Popovici touched first to win gold by a fingertip.

The margin was the same as what separated Adam Peaty from gold on Sunday, with just 0.15 seconds separating the top four in a sprint to the wall.

Luke Hobson of the United States was 0.05 seconds behind Richards for bronze while GB’s Duncan Scott narrowly missed out on the medals in fourth.