AN emotional James Guy reflected on a "dream come true" as the former Somerset school student finally got his hands on an Olympic gold medal on Wednesday morning.

Alongside Tom Dean, Matthew Richards and Duncan Scott, Guy helped Great Britain to victory in the men's 4x200 metres freestyle relay final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Their time of six minutes and 58.58 seconds set a new European benchmark and was just three hundredths of a second behind the world record held by a USA team that featured Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

It was a special moment for Guy - who studied at Millfield School, Street - after he won two relay silvers at Rio 2016 and finished fourth in the individual 200m freestyle event there.

Having finally scaled the mountain, he was in tears by the time Scott touched the wall to secure victory here.

"It's a dream come true," said Guy, who was crying in the stands the day before after watching training partner Dean become Britain's first Olympic male champion in an individual freestyle event in more than a century.

Bridgwater Mercury:

GOLD: British swimmers Duncan Scott, Matthew Richards, James Guy and Tom Dean (pic: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

"Being a young lad I was dreaming of Olympic gold, that's all I've ever wanted in my life is to get that and now I've done it.

"It just shows if you've got a plan, you work hard, when you believe in yourself it can happen.

"All the early mornings, all the years of getting up at 10 past four, we're here and it's finally nice to do it.

"Hurting me most was getting fourth in Rio and obviously Tom getting gold yesterday, my training partner, I felt like I was swimming with him, that's why I was so emotional.

"For him to do that is a dream come true for me."