Keri-Anne tastes the Payne as Brits fail to rule the pool

The Serpentine Bridge decked out especially for the Olympics

It was a crushing afternoon for Great Britain's marathon swimmer Keri-Anne Payne when she came agonisingly close to taking a medal at Hyde Park today, only to miss out on bronze by 0.4 seconds. Payne was in fact only four seconds behind gold medal winner Eva Risztov of Hungary, which over a 10km swim lasting approximately two hours is the tightest of margins. I was stood on the banks of the Serpentine this afternoon in the baking sun where one of the Olympics' harshest events ensured a good turnout from the Brits. But the race left a subdued crowd at the end of the two hours as Team GB's representative, who had been favourite to take the gold, was denied in the cruellest fashion. The 24-year-old had claimed the silver medal in Beijing back in 2008 and since then had won the world championships twice, in 2009 and 2011, and with the home advantage of London 2012 she will look back on this with much disappointment. As she put it herself, 'Fourth in the world is not too bad but not what I really wanted.'

Payne was devastated to miss out  on the podium

Yet while Payne will be disappointed, it has to be taken into account that her event is one of the most horrendous to compete in. China's Fang Yanqiao pulled out before the race started with an unspecified injury and the Serpentine then claimed two victims during the event itself. South Africa's Jessica Roux couldn't continue after three laps and was hauled out of the water and taken away in a wheelchair, while Brazilian Poliana Okimoto fainted from dehydration after being pulled out of the lake during the fifth lap. This meant only 22 out of the initial 25 entrants finished the race with 22nd placed Greek Marianna Lymperta crossing the line nearly seven minutes behind the victorious Risztov. It must be said that the incredible levels of durability, stamina and energy required to succeed in this event is clear for all to see and just completing the race is more than an achievement.

Some Olympic jobs look more fun than others

The marathon swim was only introduced to the Olympics for the first time in 2008 and is the equivalent of swimming 400 lengths of a 25m pool. The Hyde Park course was a relatively serene one as it had been oxygenated to keep the course clear of algae and the only wildlife consisted of ducks and geese, as opposed to jellyfish or dead dogs, which Payne has encountered in previous marathon swims in Australia and China respectively. Yet despite the lack of unsavoury obstacles it still took a lot of ability and experience to win the race, with the action in the pack during the first stages of the race being particularly physical. Risztov has bags of experience having competed in the pool back in the early 2000s, including at the 2004 Olympics before retiring in 2005. She announced her return in 2009, deciding to primarily compete in the open water swimming discipline although she did make some appearances in the aquatics centre last week.

The top five swimmers on the final lap (Payne - blue cap,centre)

But while Risztov can look back on her tournament with much satisfaction this caps a disappointing showing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the swimming events which have taken place at London 2012. There is one final event tomorrow, the men's 10km marathon swim, but Team GB's only entrant Daniel Fogg is a real outsider and is unlikely to achieve a medal. The home nation appear set to finish the tournament with only three swimming medals, one silver from Michael Jamieson and the two bronzes achieved by Rebecca Adlington, who of course had won double gold four years ago. This looks particularly bad when compared to the USA's haul of 31 medals- 16 of which were gold, so it is certainly something for the British swimming authorities to work on ahead of Rio in 2016. With so many medals on offer for swimming, if Great Britain can start winning more often in the pool then the impossible gap between USA and China and the rest of the world may no longer seem so impossible.

James will return tomorrow morning with the third and final edition of The Friday Feeling. If you haven't already, make sure to follow him on Twitter @TSFE2012 and if you haven't read some of his earlier blogs then feel free to check them out using the menu on the right hand side of the page!

First, third and final photographs by James Phillips.

Won too much, much too young?

Is this already the end of the road for the likeable Adlington?

Rebecca Adlington is only 23 years old. Yet she is contemplating retirement and referring to herself as 'old' after winning bronze medals in both the 400m and 800m freestyle at London 2012. The Mansfield-born swimmer stormed to national icon status back in Beijing 2008, when as a 19-year-old she claimed gold medals in both events, including smashing Janet Evans' 800m record which had stood since the year Adlington was born. Now, after failing to defend the titles, losing out to 22-year-old French competitor Camille Muffat in the 400m and the 15-year-old American Katie Ledecky in the 800m, Adlington is having a serious think about whether she is good enough to continue at the highest level, particularly bearing in mind that she will be aged 27 by the time Rio de Janeiro 2016 rolls around. 

Ledecky is one amongst a new generation of female swimmers who have taken the thirtieth Olympiad by storm. The swimmer from Maryland was only born in 1997 and is the youngest member of the entire USA Olympics squad. She improved her personal best by 5 seconds within less than a month to land the gold in London's aquatics centre and it must be said she will be eyeing up Rio excitedly in the expectation of more success. Another young female swimmer to hit the headlines earlier during the tournament was the 16-year-old Chinese competitor Ye Shiwen. Shiwen claimed gold in the 200m and 400m individual medleys, setting a world record in the latter and swimming the last 50m in an outrageous 28.93 seconds. Many people suspected doping but Shiwen passed tests and her record stands. Ledecky's fellow American, Missy Franklin, who is just 17 is yet another swimmer making waves with her performances in London and collected four gold medals and a bronze in a variety of events last week. All of these young athletes will be looking to improve further in the run up to the next Olympics.

It is not only amongst the female swimmers that success comes at a young age. Ian Thorpe, the Australian fan favourite who claimed five golds, three silvers and a bronze at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 was only aged 17 at the former and 21 at the latter tournament. The Thorpedo even retired aged 24 after some fitness issues led him to believe he was unable to compete at the top level. He made an attempted return to the pool in 2011, still aged only 28,  but earlier this year he failed to qualify to compete at this year's Olympics, making it clear that at his age he is no longer good enough to win medals. London 2012 has though, had the pleasure to see Michael Phelps in all his glory as the American became officially the greatest ever Olympian, adding four more golds and two silvers to his already stratospheric haul of Olympic medals taking him to a grand total of 18 golds and 22 medals overall, won across just three tournaments. But the Baltimore Bullet has now announced his retirement at the age of 27, an age where many other sportsmen are believed to be at their very peak.

So why do swimmers peak so early? BBC's swimming experts Steve Parry and Sharron Davies attribute it to hard work done by coaches and the fact that young competitors don't get fazed but surely there is more to it than that? Another theory is that swimmers 'burn out' as the sport has such a toil on the body that competitors need to stop their intense training by a certain age and then are not in a strong enough position to compete with the younger athletes who can maintain the intense training regime. Motivation could be another factor as after achieving so much early, like Thorpe and Phelps did, the thought of working so hard just to compete again in something they have already won would not be entirely appealing. One theory is that young swimmers, while having well-trained muscles, have not fully bulked out meaning that there is less unnecessary weight on their bodies, a slight advantage over their older, larger competitors. Regardless, it is clear that swimmers peak extremely young. Ledecky, Shinwen and Franklin will be expecting to dominate the pools at Rio 2016 but who knows? By then, someone who is currently just 11-years-old could be outpacing all of them.


It's the final week of the Olympics now but The Search for Excellence has plenty more to offer. James is off to the women's football semi-final between Japan and France tonight, and the triathlon, open water swimming, walk race and men's marathon later in the week. Make sure to follow him on Twitter @TSFE2012 and come back tomorrow for the next article.