The arch enemies set world records, won Olympic and Commonwealth titles and left the previously dominant Americans in their wake. But after being beaten at his favoured distance for the first time in his life, Davis, the brash Canadian with a maple leaf tattoo on his chest, found a new respect for Englishman Moorhouse. They had a beer. They talked. They soon became close friends.

That is how it stayed until tragedy struck. Davis, with so much to look forward to after retiring from swimming, was killed by a hit-and-run driver after an argument at a nightclub. He was 25. The man who killed him, Glen Crossley, served only four months but was behind bars again in 2020 when he pleaded guilty to manslaughter after an altercation with a drunken 70-year-old man in a bar. The man died.

Moorhouse struggled to cope with Davis' death. The day after the swimming programme ended at the Auckland 1990 Commonwealth Games, he joined eight others on a boat that crossed Auckland Harbour to cast Davis's ashes into the sea.

"That ceremony on the boat gave me some closure," said Moorhouse. "The last time I had seen Victor was at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. He was feeling low because he had just finished fourth and I had won the gold, a reversal of the placings in the 1984 Olympics. I said to him, 'It’s all about the journey, not just this one race'. On that boat in Auckland, I remembered that conversation. Victor had one heck of a journey."

When Davis was still at junior school he was labelled "a hyperactive kid from a broken home". He was brought up in a tough district by his father Mel, with whom he always had a very strong relationship.

He was the bad boy of Canadian sport, and was castigated by the media. At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Davis defeated Moorhouse to take the 100 metres breaststroke gold and insulted the Englishman after the race.

"I knew it must have been slow down the second half because Moorhouse was still with me," he told reporters, while Moorhouse was sitting next to him. Moorhouse responded by winning the 200m. Davis, the Olympic champion and world record holder, had never been beaten at that distance.

Davis got the message. Here was a rival who deserved respect. Over the next few months the two became drinking buddies and, eventually, close friends.

Davis grew up in Guelph, Ontario, less than 30 miles from the Commonwealth Games birthplace in Hamilton. His grandfather had been a boxer who coached Canada's 1924 Olympic team. 

He trained for five hours a day through his teenage years, and at 16 he won his first major title in Auckland in 1981, in the Pan Pacifics. He fell in love with the place, which is why his ashes were strewn there.

A year later he won 200m gold in a world record time at the World Championships in Ecuador, and later the same year he went to the Brisbane Commonwealth Games expecting three golds. He won only one after Moorhouse beat him at 100m and the medley relay team was disqualified, leading to a temper tantrum by Davis at poolside.

By the time of the next Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Davis had won Olympic gold in 1984 in Los Angeles, where Moorhouse underperformed.

By 1986 Moorhouse was world number one at 100m, and before the Commonwealth Games the press labelled Moorhouse and Davis "the Coe and Ovett of the pool".

Moorhouse's favoured distance, the 100m, was first up. He lost, then had to listen to Davis's 'I knew it was slow' comment. Three days later, Moorhouse sensationally beat Davis at 200m.

Dave Stubbs, the Canadian team's media man, said: "At the press conference Victor offered no excuses, he congratulated the winner. A once poor loser had matured."

At Auckland 1990 Moorhouse, who became the first man to swim the 100m breaststroke inside a minute in 1987 and won Olympic gold in 1988, won yet another Commonwealth gold.

"It was the first time I'd raced in a Commonwealth Games without Victor, but he still had an impact on my time there," said Moorhouse, who retired to go into business and broadcasting in 1992.

Mel Davis was pleased when Stubbs suggested taking his son's ashes to Auckland, and spoke fondly of Victor’s final journey. "Dave Stubbs got upgraded on the plane over there, and he said 'well I'll leave Victor up in first class and I'll go to the back of the plane', so Victor’s ashes travelled in style. Victor would have liked that."