Murdoch misses medal but puts personal demons to bed

Commonwealth champion in 2014, the 23-year-old missed out on selection in his favoured event for the 2015 Worlds and last year's Olympics.

That disappointment still ate away at him until March this year, with Murdoch conceding he was overweight and mentally struggling before seeking help, including via a psychologist and nutritionist, and rediscovering his form in time to make the team for Budapest.

He was eighth in the 100m on Monday before eventually finishing fourth in Friday's longer event in 2:08.12.

It was nearly seven tenths off bronze and slower than his semi-final, something that clearly irked him, but that disappointment paled in comparison to his pride at simply being able to compete with the world's best again.

"I don't come here to swim slower in finals than the semis and I've done that twice," he said.

"I'm pretty mad at myself for that. But that's something I can work on over the next season.

"If you'd have told me in April that I would have come away with a final spot and come so close to a medal, I would have been absolutely jumping for it because I was not in a good place at the trials.

"It was probably about six weeks out from trials, I was 5kg over weight and putting on.

"I had to really turn my life around in those six weeks, I was pretty lucky to scrape on the team there.

"Since then I've been on top of the world really. I'm proud of myself that I did turn it around, I got myself on the team and I managed to get myself back onto my best.

"This has just been a trampoline, a springboard, into the next season."

Murdoch could yet still leave the Hungarian capital with silverware with selectors likely to call on him for Sunday's medley relay heats before five-time World Champion Adam Peaty is expected to take over for the final, although the Balloch-born swimmer would still pick up a medal if the team finishes on the podium.

Like Murdoch, Peaty came to attention at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning 100m breaststroke gold with the Scot taking bronze, and then going on to win the Olympic title last year.

Murdoch himself could only manage ninth in Rio and the University of Stirling swimmer conceded the whole Games experience had been one of his lowest moments.

"It can come in many different shapes and forms that. You can get it from failure. Failure's pretty bad," he added.

"But I believe that success can also lead equally to deep and dark things.

"The Olympics is built up to be something that it's not, quite frankly. At the end of the day it's just another meet.

I got there and I swam terrible. For me it was just really, really underwhelming.

"I swam there on day one and then I had to watch seven days of Britain smashing it and I was just sat there in the stands like 'why? Why haven't I been a part of that?' And I had to watch everybody else smash it. That was pretty rough.

"Looking back at it, I could have dealt with it a lot better. It really took until March until it really sunk in that I had a real problem and I needed to speak to someone about it."

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