Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson produced the fastest swim of their lives but it was not enough to overcome the home favourite, Federica Pellegrini, on a night when the procession of swimsuit-powered world records threatened to turn the World Championships into high farce.
Roared on by an ecstatic Italian crowd at the Foro Italico, Pellegrini's victory was one of six world records to fall in the space of a couple of hours as she became the first swimmer in history to break the four-minute barrier in the women's 400 metres freestyle, touching home in 3min 59.15sec.
Jackson, the Olympic bronze medallist, was second in 4min 0.60sec, which was quicker than her time in Sheffield in March when she broke the world record, while Adlington was just 0.19sec behind her team-mate and close friend, also dipping under her lifetime best.
"This is Federica's home ground and it's a very different environment," said Adlington. "Obviously, being at home, she had the whole crowd cheering for her.
"It was definitely her night and definitely something that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. It gives me a lot of confidence because in London it will be our crowd cheering for us, so hopefully we can better what she has done."
But it was what Pellegrini and the other record-breaking swimmers were wearing on Sunday that commanded as much attention as their performances in the pool.
One by one they emerged from their exploits with shiny all-in-one suits bearing the names of Jaked, Arena and Adidas – the makers of the 100 per cent polyurethane swimwear that is set to rewrite swimming history over the next week.
Last week Fina, the world governing body, declared an end to the suit wars by decreeing that the sport would return to textile-only suits from Jan 1 2010 and that women's costumes would no longer be allowed to extend below the knee.
But the ruling has come too late for these championships, where the polyurethane suits are enjoying their last hurrah.
Adlington, who has taken a moral stand against the suits and has likened them to taking performance-enhancing drugs, was the only swimmer in yesterday's 400m final wearing a part-textile suit, sticking with the Speedo LZR she wore at the Beijing Olympics.
After Sunday's swim, the 20-year-old said she had no regrets at her decision but conceded that an all-polyurethane suit might have improved her time.
"Maybe I could have gone a little bit faster but at the end of the day I wanted to compare my time with last year and I want be able to come next year and know that I can hopefully go just as quick in a knee suit.
"That's why I chose to wear this – just so that I could compare last year. Obviously, I've improved by two seconds, which means I'm on the right track and not going downhill."
The theory goes that the new suits do not have the same effect in the longer events, which means Adlington may not be so disadvantaged when it comes to her favourite 800m freestyle.
But no-one was left in any doubt about their performance-enhancing benefits over shorter distances as world records were not just beaten but totally demolished and, in all probability, put out of reach for years to come.
None was more mind-boggling than the world record of 2min 7.03sec set by American Ariana Kukors, wearing a Jaked suit, in the women's 200m individual medley, which sliced almost a second and a half off Stephanie Rice's old mark. Incredibly, it was only a semi-final.
Britain's Hannah Miley also benefited from a little, black Jaked number to qualify third fastest for the final in a British record of 2min 9.46sec.
The world record set by Germany's Arena-wearing Paul Biedermann was by a more marginal 100th of a second but the old mark was considered one of the most untouchable in the statistics book – Ian Thorpe's 400m freestyle record of 3min 40.08sec set at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
The German's time was more than seven and half seconds faster than his personal best a year ago.
Fifteen-year-old Swede Sarah Sjostrom, also wearing Arena, set a world record of 56.44sec in her 100m butterfly semi-final, while the Dutch women's 4x100m freestyle quartet set a new world mark of 3min 31.72.
In the same race, the lead-off German swimmer, the Adidas-clad Britta Steffen, set an individual 100m freestyle world record of 52.22sec.
It was easy to lose count, and by the end of these championships we probably will.
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