As he lined up for the men’s 100m butterfly, all eyes were on whether Klim and team-mate Geoff Huegill could make it a memorable Australian gold-silver quinella.

Klim was the race favourite having three times lowered the world record over the years leading into the Games. However, Sweden’s Lars Froelander had other ideas.

The pair were naturally disappointed with Klim saying; “I don’t think it was a fantastic swim. I think we knew we could have done better.

“Every time I get in the water, I try to swim my best and try and win a gold medal, but in sport it doesn’t always work out that way. For me tonight, my swim was a reasonable one, but I am a bit disappointed because it was below my best,” he added.

Klim appeared to have the race in control with 25m remaining, but Froelander stormed home in the final 10m to claim an upset victory and silence the pro-Australian crowd with Klim and Huegill earning the silver and bronze medals.

It was also silver for equestrian Andrew Hoy in the individual three day event – his fourth medal in five Olympics - after also winning gold earlier in the Games.

Hoy gave Australia’s hopes of a gold medal an enormous boost when posting a clear final round on his mount, Swizzle, which saw him leap-frog from fourth and into the lead with three riders remaining.

With an expectant crowd watching on, New Zealand’s Mark Todd and Greece’s Heidi Antikatzidis either lowered fences or incurred time penalties to see Hoy remain in first place with only USA’s David O’Connor and two rails standing in the way to a second gold medal.

O’Connor then lost his bearings midway through his ride when looking for the next fence, but he quickly regained his composure to complete the course having knocked down only one rail.

Elsewhere, there was excitement building with the women’s water polo team charging into the gold medal game after a thrilling 7-6 semi-final win over Russia, scoring three goals in three minutes in the final quarter, after they trailed 6-4.