Kosuke Hagino saw his bid for domination in the Rio Olympic pool grind to an abrupt halt when he finished seventh in the 200-meter freestyle final on Monday night.
Hagino was looking to follow his gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley with more success at the Olympic Aquatic Stadium, but instead China's Sun Yang left him spluttering in his wake as Hagino struggled home second from last in a time of 1 minute, 45.90 seconds.
"My time was worse than it was yesterday in the semifinal," said Hagino, who finished 1.25 seconds behind Sun's winning time of 1:44.65. "I thought I could go faster and it's frustrating that I couldn't.