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, 21, came agonisingly close as Romania’s rising star David Popovici, 19, 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 splitting 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, the silver medallist three years ago, narrowly missed out in fourth.

So close was the margin, Richards said he felt as though he had touched first but not applied enough pressure to the finishing touchpad for it to register initially.

“That’s something I’ve got to work on and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Richards, who is from Worcestershire but represents Wales.

“I thought I had got it. The time says differently. It’s not a sport where it’s up for debate – it’s black and white.

“I can’t be too disappointed. Obviously two one hundredths off gold is excruciatingly frustrating. If anything it has added more fire to my belly.”

The medal was Team GB’s sixth of day three and takes their overall total to 10.

In the previous race, Britain’s Freya Colbert was fourth in the 400m medley, missing out on a medal by 0.74 seconds, as 17-year-old Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh won the first of what will surely be many Olympic golds.

Later, Mona McSharry won Ireland’s first medal of the Games with bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

Richards was part of Great Britain’s 4x200m relay team that won gold in Tokyo, as was Scott, but this was his first individual Olympic medal.

Richards won the 2023 world title last year but had not hit top form in Paris.

He and Scott were in the 100m freestyle relay quartet that finished fifth on day one and his middling semi-final time left him in an outside lane, where the waves are bigger and quick times rarely swum.

But he overcame that expertly and was in contention throughout.

Popovici, who announced himself in 2022, aged 17, by winning the 100m and 200m gold at the World Championships, looked to be struggling at the start of the fourth and final length but he dug deep to win in one minute 44.72 seconds.

“I misjudged the semi-final a bit,” Richards said. “Being out there meant I was a little bit out of the race and I had to swim on my own.

“It is all learning. I want another 10 years before even thinking about hanging the goggles up.”

Scott was bidding for a seventh Olympic medal, another to go with his relay gold and five silvers, but was beaten to bronze by 0.08 seconds.

“Fourth is a horrible place to come,” the Scot said.

“I was buzzing going into that, had really good fun in there, and looking back I maybe should have pushed it on a bit earlier. It was really tight, came down to the finish and I didn’t quite have it today.”

Such is Britain’s strength in depth in this event, Olympic champion Tom Dean was beaten by Richards and Scott at the trials in April and did not qualify.

The trio will now unite on Tuesday as they bid to defend their relay title, first in the morning heats, although Richards or Scott could be rested before a potential final at 21:01 BST.

Richards also has the 100m freestyle starting on Tuesday, in which he will hope to be among the medals again.

“Myself and Duncan, second and fourth, I am gutted for him, just missing out on a medal,” Richards said.

“It bodes really well for the 4x200m.”

Colbert’s fourth place was the same position team-mate Max Litchfield finished in the equivalent men’s event 24 hours earlier – the third time in a row he had finished fourth at the Olympics.

“Hopefully I don’t have the curse like Max does,” Colbert said.

“Having trained every day with him and seeing the amount of work he has put in, it was just really disappointing. I wanted to win that medal for both of us tonight but we’ll just have to keep pushing for next time. “

Ahead of Colbert, McIntosh was a comfortable winner, beating USA’s Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant into second and third respectively in her breakout moment on the world stage.

Already a teenage three-time world champion and world record holder, McIntosh took silver in the 400m freestyle on Saturday and could still win another three medals in Paris.

Scotland’s Katie Shanahan was seventh.

McSharry’s breaststroke bronze made her just the second Irish swimming medallist as she came through amid competition from Britain’s Angharad Evans and others.

Evans finished in sixth, just 0.26 seconds outside of the medals, while South Africa’s Tatjana Smith took gold.

In the men’s 100m backstroke final, Britain’s Ollie Morgan finished eighth as world record holder Thomas Ceccon won Italy’s second swimming gold in as many days.

And in the final race of the night Mollie O’Callaghan beat her Australia team-mate and training partner Ariarne Titmus in the 200m freestyle, denying her a second gold of the Games.