Lithuanian swimmer Danas Rapsys was within touching distance of world record pace in the 400m freestyle with 50m to go at the International Swimming League in Budapest, leaving all rivals in his wake.

But in comical fashion, the 25-year-old Olympian had miscounted the number of lengths he had done and subsequently stopped with two more still to go.

After looking around confused for several seconds, Rapsys realised his error and in a panicked state pushed off the wall to complete the race.

With the world record now gone, the swimmer was simply fighting for the race win and appeared to be fading in the final burst for the line.

But he managed to hold on by the slenderest of margins, fending off American Zane Grothe by just 0.1 second.