But Britain’s Luke Greenbank, got in on the Russian act by winning the men’s 200m backstroke in a world junior time, and France’s Nicolas D’Oriano added the 800m freestyle gold to the one he had already won at 1500m.

Pakhomov had set the tone for Russia in the morning session, when he reduced the world junior record from 52.52sec in his 100m butterfly heat, before asserting that he could go faster in the evening’s semi-final.

Which he duly did, lowering the mark to 52.13.

And now?

Well now he thinks he can go faster...

"I broke the record twice and I wasn't surprised," he said.

"I was expecting to break the record since this morning. And now I want to show that I can swim even faster and break the record again tomorrow."

Pakhomov’s team-mate Arina Openysheva was similarly self-assured after a victory in the women’s 200m freestyle brought her a sixth gold of these Games.

"It's nothing special,” she said.

“I expected that because of our hard training."

Openysheva’s win, in 1min 58.22sec, was the sweeter for the fact that silver medal went to The Netherlands swimmer who ruined her ambition of winning a perfect eight golds here, 100m freestyle winner Marrit Steenbergen, who clocked 1:58.99.

Having taken that silver Steenbergen had a crack at one of the other top Russian swimmers in the final of the 50m freestyle, but once again had to settle for silver as Maria Kameneva secured her fourth medal of the Games in 25.23, 0.04 ahead of the Dutch girl, before adding a fifth gold along with Openysheva, Pakhomov and Anton Chupkov in the concluding mixed 4x100m medley.

Russia’s domination was completed by victories in the women’s 100m butterfly by Polina Egorova and the men’s 50m backstroke by Filipp Shopin.

Greenbank, a 17-year-old from Crewe, produced one of the broadest grins witnessed on the day as he stared at the screen following his race and witnessed confirmation that his time of 1:56.89 had beaten the record held by Li Guangyuan of China by 0.05 seconds.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said.

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