Strengthening his lead from start to finish, Paltrinieri headed into the 1,400-metre turn under a world-record pace, but fell off towards the end for the gold medal in 14:34.57.

[4] Meanwhile, Paltrinieri's countryman Gabriele Detti gave the Italians a further reason to celebrate, as he powered home with a bronze in 14:40.86, overtaking the American challenger Jordan Wilimovsky (14:45.03) by almost five seconds.

[5][6] Australia's Mack Horton, who claimed the 400 m freestyle title on night one, picked up the fifth spot with a 14:49.54 to hold off a sprint race from Canada's Ryan Cochrane (14:49.61), two-time medalist in this event, by seven hundredths of a second.

[5] China's world-record holder Sun Yang missed a chance to defend his Olympic title in this event, after posting the sixteenth fastest time (15:01.97) in the preliminary competition.

[9][10] Meanwhile, Tunisian swimmer and Beijing 2008 champion Oussama Mellouli failed to advance to the top eight final with a twenty-first-place finish in his fifth Olympic appearance.