An emotional James Wilby paid tribute to his NHS nurse mother Fiona, saying he was disappointed he could not reward her sacrifices with an Olympic medal.

Afterwards, Wilby became tearful following a question on whether his mum’s work vaccinating people during the coronavirus pandemic put the result into perspective.

“Now you’re going to get me emotional,” he said.

“My mum’s been putting in such a shift for me over the last 27 years and that’s probably the main disappointment which is I know I’ve made her proud, but I haven’t quite won the medal I would like to have won for her.

“She’s been working as a nurse, giving out vaccines recently, to an extent which makes me so proud of her and for what’s she done for me and my brother over the last quite a few years.

“I’m really, really happy with what she’s done. She’s the role model in all this, I hope she enjoyed watching that.”

Thursday’s race, which was won by Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook, could be Wilby’s final participation at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Briton, who finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke final won by team-mate Adam Peaty on Monday, will be 30 by Paris 2024 and did not rule out his setback here being his last participation at the Olympics.

He is part of the men’s 4×100 medley relay group but the breaststroke leg is likely to go to Olympic champion Peaty.

“If that’s my last swim here at the Games, I have a job to do supporting others,” he added. “There are some people coming up who I train with and am very close with. I want to be there to help wherever I can with them.

“If I get a chance to swim again, I’ll be there and I’ll be ready to put this behind me and move on and put in a good effort for the team.”