Duncan Scott declares numbers DO lie as he closes in on Team GB Olympics medal record

Duncan Scott insists numbers do lie after moving just one medal away from topping the UK’s all-time Olympic charts.

The Alloa swim star made it a great eight in Paris with a repeat of his men’s 200 metres individual medley silver from Tokyo to break his tie with Chris Hoy to be Scotland’s best and moves him alongside Bradley Wiggins. One relay podium this weekend would take him level with pacesetter Jason Kenny. But Scott said: “I’m in a completely different bracket to these guys.

“They’ve come into the Olympics and absolutely dominated – Sir Jason Kenny, Sir Chris Hoy and others. You guys can compare the medals but don’t put me in comparison to these guys. They are people that have inspired me through my Olympic journeys. When I was a young kid I watched Andy Murray. He’s stepping away from the sport.

"The fact is I’m 27 now and this is my third Games. But when I was young he was the one that I was looking up to and he was doing it against the best in the world on the world stage. They’ve come in and won gold after gold after gold and I’m scraping silvers and jumping on the backs of others in relays.”

Don’t believe a word of it. This was a sensational silver that saw the Alloa man plough through a wall of noise to hunt home favourite Leon Marchand. With President Macron leading the cheers, the French star set an Olympic record of 1:54.06 to land his fourth gold of the Games.

Scott turned last in the opening butterfly leg but turned up the heat to just miss his own British record – with China’s Tokyo champ Shun Wang taking bronze and team-mate Tom Dean fifth. And Scott, with his second medal in Paris, added: “I’d like to think I went head to head with Leon for a little bit of the race.

“But the guy is the best 200m