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Hector Pardoe was forced to withdraw from the men's Olympic 10km marathon swim  with just a couple of kilometres left.

Pardoe revealed after the race, which was won by dominant German Florian Wellbrock, that he had received a stray elbow to his face.

He admitted to the BBC: 'On the last lap, I took an elbow to the face, I thought I had lost the eye. My goggles completely came off.

Germany's Florian Wellbrock cruised to Olympic gold in the men's 10km marathon swim

Team GB's Hector Pardoe retired from Thursday's race with just kilometres remaining

'I like to think whenever I get an injury I'd be able to finish the race but the goggles completely fell off. 

'And I couldn't even get them. And I couldn't see anything. I thought my eye had fallen out into the water. 

'And I was going up to the lifeguards saying "my eye, my eye - is it OK". 

Wellbrock destroyed the rest of the field, recording a remarkable time of 1:48:33.7seconds

'And they weren't giving me a very decisive opinion. And yeah, I had to get out after that.'

The scorching Tokyo conditions also made it a brutal event for those competing, but German swimmer Wellbrock certainly didn't let that affect him.

The German powered his way to Olympic gold in a time of 1:48:33.7 - winning by over 25 seconds ahead of Hungary's Kristof Rasovksy Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri. 

The German made light of the scoring Tokyo conditions on Thursday at the Olympics