City of Sheffield's Max Litchfield comes up short in Budapest but soon turns attention to his favoured event

The 22-year-old had a chance to mark his maiden appearance at the global gathering by grabbing what would have been an unexpected podium finish in the 200m individual medley yesterday.

In previous years Litchfield has made a name for himself in the 400m, finishing fourth at last year’s Olympics.

But with the shorter event first up, he had demonstrated his current form by smashing James Goddard’s British record on the way to the final.

He was unable to lower that time in the medal race, clocking 1:56.86 for fourth – 0.22 slower than his heat swim – but it was still another consistently fast race from the Briton.

“There are always going to be mixed feelings I guess when you come fourth in any final, but to come in there and go 1:56 three times is beyond what I could have imagined,” he said. “It’s disappointing to come fourth but it’s promising for the rest of the week.

“My qualifying performance might have raised expectations a little bit, but I was just trying to go in there and swim fast and trying to touch the wall first. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be and we move on.

“I felt good in the race; the last 50m hurt a lot, but it was always going to.”

Litchfield was in the race at halfway before a tight last 50m left it as a dash for the wall.

America’s Chase Kalisz took gold in 1:55.56 with China’s Olympic bronze medallist Shun Wang the one to edge out Litchfield in the race for a medal.

The Briton will go again in the 400m medley on the final day of competition on Sunday and he was feeling optimistic about his chances.

“All the experience I’ve got from this year and last year is going to add up massively. I’m just going to use that every time I race,” he added.