Olympic champion Wilkie too fast for lifeguard's liking

London - Britain's 1976 Olympic swimming champion David Wilkie revealed he tore up his health club member's card after being accused of....swimming too fast.

The 62-year-old - who won Olympic gold in the 200m breaststroke - told The Daily Mail he had been astonished by the lifeguard informing him he was going too fast.

"I was just swimming as normal in the pool, doing front crawl, and the lifeguard came up to me and said, 'I think you banged into somebody'. I said, 'it's the fast lane you know, this is rubbish'," said Wilkie, who took silver in the 200m breaststroke in the 1972 Olympics.

Wilkie, born in Sri Lanka where his Scottish parents were based, added: "You go to the pool to swim not to have lifeguards telling you how to swim."

A spokesperson for the health club confirmed the incident in 2015 had taken place and Wilkie had resigned as a member.

"We take any complaints we receive from our members seriously. We spoke with Mr Wilkie in 2015 to resolve his complaint and we were sorry to see him leave our club."