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Omaha: Swimming's flamboyant showman Gary Hall Jr left the stage exactly how you would expect him to on Saturday - shot down with all guns blazing in his audacious bid to the make the US Olympic team.
Wearing a cape and using his fingers as pistols, Hall stepped on the pool deck at the US Olympic trials for the 50m freestyle final to a thunderous ovation, pretending to shoot at the young challengers who would end his reign as double Olympic sprint champion.
But a minute later, Hall's bid to make his fourth Olympic team and an opportunity to become the first swimmer to win the same event at three different Games was over, ended with a fourth place finish.
Outside chance
Hall arrived at the trials as long shot to make the team but as he had done so many times before, found a way to get his hand on the wall first when it mattered, working his way through the preliminary heats and semifinals.
However, the 33-year-old's luck ran out in the final with Garrett Weber-Gale touching first in an American record 21.47 seconds and he was followed by Ben Wildman-Tobriner as the pair clinched the two Olympic berths available.
"I finished in fourth place, it was a hell of a race and very proud of it," said Hall.
"The future of sprinting is a very bright one in America. "I was glad to be part of the history of sprinting in America."
For almost a decade, Hall set the standard in the event.
One of swimming's most colourful characters, he was also one of the most talented, claiming 10 medals, including five golds from three Olympics.
But it was outspoken Hall's antics away from the pool as much as his achievement in it, that made him one of the sport's best known figures.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Hall drew the wrath of the host nation when he said the US 4x100m relay team would smash the Australians like guitars.
When the Australian beat the Americans, they stepped onto the podium to accept their medals and taunted Hall by playing air guitars.
Never afraid of courting controversy, Hall flew into Omaha on a private jet and said the rash of recent world records had more to do with doping than the hi-tech swimsuits that have been getting all the credit.
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