Imagine The Special One lining the team up and asking: “OK, lads, who’d like a game today?” Unthinkable. But that is what happened down at the Water Cube here tonight, and it cost Rebecca Adlington her chance of winning three medals in the pool.

Adlington won the 400m freestyle title on Monday and is fastest in the world this year going into the 800m, the final of which will unfold on Saturday. She would have raced for a medal with teammates in the morning in the final of the 4x200m freestyle – and Britain at its best is ranked world No2 this year and had a clear shot at the podium.

No longer. The quartet of Joanne Jackson, Melanie Marshall, Hannah Miley and Francesca Halsall finished ninth in the heats tonight as Caitlin McClatchey and Adlington, swimmers whose best times combined are 5sec faster than the sum of Miley and Halsall. Japan was the last through, on 7:55.63, Britain locked out by 0.53sec.

Michael Scott, the Britain performance director, served as the captain on the sunken ship: “I take full responsibility for what happened ...”. Understandable but the responsibility also rests with head women’s coach, Ben Titley, and the women themselves. It was Titley, by his own admission, who “asked the girls if they would like to swim – and they all said ‘yes’.” Well, they would. Those who swim in the heats receive a medal if faster teammates win one – and there was a very good chance that they would.

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All four women were between a 1sec and 1.5sec outside their best times. Collective responsibility could not have been clearer. Marshall said that missing the final was “a smack in the face”. She apologised to “the disappointed people back home”. Titley apologised too for what he described as “an undeniable big hit”. He and Scott denied that there had been any risk in the selection made. But the fact that teams such as Japan and Hungary, strong swimming nations, had not shown their best hand all year might have suggested a policy of erring on the side of caution.

Britain was not the only big miss: Germany, the former world record holders, and European bronze medallists the Netherlands also missed the cut.

Scott said: “We’ve had a great week ‘til today and on paper those four girls should have qualified. We’re a strong team unit. We will support those girls. Obviously they are disappointed and the team is disappointed for them. We will use this as a positive going forward.”

That was a nod to the task of getting Halsall, 18, up for the 100m semi-final tomorrow. Halsall had already qualified fifth fastest in heats with a 53.93 that suggested a place in the final is a strong possibility and would be tremendous experience for a teenager bound for London 2012. In hindsight, it would have been much wiser to swim McClatchey, who withdrew from the 100m freestyle, in the relay heats and allowed Halsall to rest.

The official line was summed up in a team press release headed "Strength of team spirit shown by British team". The argument about what should and might have been is academic now, as far as SCott is concerned. Learn, move on and support the whole for the sake of the chances yet to come. How Britain respond to the biggest disappointments of these Games in terms of missed opportunities will be a test of their character and resolve.