Team GB swimmer James Goddard fearless in the face of American rivals

James Goddard will have no fear about competing against the two biggest names in swimming when he lines up against Americans Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in tonight’s 200-metre individual medley semi-final.

Goddard finished second in his heat, ahead of last night’s 200m butterfly gold-medal winner Chad Le Clos. Goddard’s time of 1min 58.56sec was bettered by only five other swimmers, including Phelps and Lochte. “I’ve got to be confident,” said 29-year-old Goddard. “If you’re not confident you’re not going to do anything. No one said that it was going to be easy.”

Fellow Brit Joe Roebuck also qualified in a time of 2:00.04, which was the 15th best of the 16 qualifiers. He will swim in the second semi-final tonight, along with South African Le Clos.

Fran Halsall and Amy Smith both qualified this morning for tonight’s women’s 100m freestyle semi-finals. Halsall was disappointed after qualifying in seventh place, with a time of 54.02.

She said: “Well I’m in the semis, other than that it felt s***, so let’s see what happens,” she said. “Job done this morning but would like to have been a bit faster than the other night.”

Britain’s women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team, made up of Ellie Faulkner, Joanne Jackson, Caitlin McClathey and Rebecca Turner, qualified for tonight’s final in seventh place.