Josh Kerr had to settle for Olympic silver in the men's 1,500 metres on Tuesday after beating rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen who finished fourth, but losing to American Cole Hocker in a thrilling final in Paris.
Ingebrigtsen took an early lead, while Kerr settled just behind him, biding his time before a ferocious final lap.
It looked as though Kerr was on for gold as Ingebrigtsen faded on the home straight, before Hocker pipped him on the line.
In a finish that was far from expected, Kerr ran a British record time of 3 minutes 27.79 seconds, only to be outdone by Hocker who broke Ingebrigtsen's Olympic record from Tokyo, running 3 minutes 27.65 seconds.
Perhaps most surprising of all was Ingebrigtsen not making the podium. He was beaten by American Yared Nuguse, who won bronze.
Kerr said despite falling agonisingly short of gold, he was more than happy with his performance.
"I ran the fastest and best tactical 1,500 metres of my life and when you start worrying about what other people do from the results you'll never be satisfied and it's not the colour of medal I wanted but it's working towards the right colour from bronze to silver," Kerr said.
"I just want to thank everyone in my team and the family members who supported me to get me in position to leave it all out there and that's what I did today.
"I'm 26, this road is not over. I wanted it today, I told you what I wanted and I didn't get it so there's going to be that part of me that's already looking ahead to the next one but I'm really really proud of the way I executed today and that's going to have to be enough for now.
"It's left me really hungry and ready for more ands I'm just glad I could add another medal to the tally for Team GB.
"I knew we had to weather a storm early, keep calm and making sure I was as emotionally as locked in as I could be.
"At 600 [metres] to go I felt like I had quite a lot left and I got pushed out slightly on the last bend. I had to work hard, got around Inge but there was so much running left at that point and it's so hard to keep track of everyone in the last 100 metres.
"The result is what the result is but I'm super proud of how I executed."