The 31-year-old brought the crowd to its feet as the champion extended his amazing run of success stretching across five Olympic campaigns.

And the champion did it easy, winning by a body length and almost two seconds.

It is Phelps’ third gold from Rio with the USA juggernaut touching the wall in a time of 1:56:61.

Japan’s Kosuke Hagino claimed silver in a time of 1:56:61.