THE family of Bury's gold medal winning swimmer James Guy have spoken of their joy at watching him become an Olympic champion.

James won the 4x200m freestyle relay gold medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in the early hours of Wednesday morning with his dad, Andy Guy, describing how much his son's win means to the family.

Andy and the rest of the family, including James’ mum Cath, his brother, Luke, his girlfriend, Courtney, and his brother’s girlfriend, Emily, stayed up throughout the night to watch the final in their family home in Bury.

Andy, said: ‘‘It felt unreal, very emotional, very well deserved and you saw the emotions coming out when he started crying and that made us cry because we had all the family together.

‘‘We are so proud and absolutely delighted for him.’’

After being at poolside for every major and national competition James has ever been in, his family found it ‘very hard’ watching from home – however their nerves soon turned into excitement once James began to take a lead over the rival American swimmer.

Andy also explained how everyone had seen the sensitive side to James as before the win, he had never cried before despite being a four times World Champion.

He said: ‘‘What you saw there was the real James Guy.

‘‘I think James showed a different side to himself – he showed the sensitive side and the nice thing about it is that when he stands on the block, he’s a real warrior.

‘‘When he gets off the blocks – for the first time ever, you’ve seen 20 years of emotion come out.’’

The Guy family have received an unbelievable amount of support, describing this last week as ‘crazy.’

Andy explained how James’ has support from people across the world, varying from military camps to past swimming clubs and from friends and family.

The swimmer will be taking part in the mixed 4x100m medley final tomorrow (Saturday, July 31) alongside his teammates,

Andy and the family are looking forward to picking James up from London Heathrow on Monday and spending some family time together.

He added: ‘‘We can’t wait to see him.

"We know he’s our big boy and six foot three, but he’s our little boy.

‘‘We can’t wait.’’