My style is not to walk away, and I won’t be walking away, says Scott

Britain emerged from the pool and open water swimming with just three medals – one silvers and two bronzes – half the number they claimed four years ago in Beijing and two down on the base target of five they had agreed with UK Sport.

Scott expects there to be an impact on funding, a decision on which will be announced by 
UK Sport in December, which means the whole exercise will be “leaner and meaner”.

Scott was clearly devastated a day after the swimming concluded with Daniel Fogg’s fifth place in the open water, with Rebecca Adlington’s bronze double and Michael Jamieson’s silver the only rays of sunshine amid the gloom.

Now he will conduct a thorough debrief with British Swimming board member Craig Hunter, who has international experience as an official, as well as two as yet unnamed independent performance leaders.

Although there has been speculation one of them is Dave Brailsford, head of the highly-successful British cycling team, this will not be the case.

Scott was clearly shaken by what happened over the past couple of weeks after Team GB had entered the Games with high hopes, confident of at least matching the Beijing outcome.

However, despite having 23 places in finals – the third highest total behind the United States and Australia – too many fell short with Scott especially frustrated by the number of fourth and fifth places.

He was, though, determined to stay on and said: “My style is not to quit, my style is not to walk away, and I won’t be walking away. I have the confidence of the board of British Swimming.”

Scott added: “I am gutted with the performances. We came here to be successful and success is measured by podium performances and we didn’t achieve that.”