Adam Peaty won the men’s 100m breaststroke gold at the world swimming championships to become Britain’s first world champion in the event for 40 years.
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The 20-year-old from Uttoxeter produced a superb finish to beat Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh at the touch in Kazan, Russia, clocking 58.52 seconds.
Van der Burgh, behind by seven hundredths of a second, touched the wall in 58.59.
Peaty has proven to be a thorn in the South African’s side after beating Van der Burgh in the 100m breaststroke at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Britain’s Ross Murdoch took bronze, behind Peaty and Van der Burgh – at 0.57secs back.
In Berlin, Peaty initially broke Van der Burgh’s world record of 26.67, but FINA, the sport’s governing body, has yet to ratify the time due to an administrative error in testing the Briton for blood doping agent EPO (erythropoietin). “About 25 meters out he was still in front so I was a bit sceptical”. Defending champion Missy Franklin was third in 1:56.42 and world-record holder Federica Pellegrini advanced sixth in 1:57.34.
Peaty and Van der Burgh had broken the championship record three times between them in the heats and semi-finals in Kazan en route to the final, and the duo will continue their battle in next summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“We are all so close, it won’t be a two-horse race and the final will be great”.
Florent Manaudou of France won the men’s 50 butterfly in 22.97.
She has set herself a punishing schedule and will have just 20 minutes between the 1500m freestyle final and her 200m semi-final in Tuesday’s evening session with the 800m freestyle heats still to come on Friday.
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In the women’s 100 backstroke semifinals, Emily Seebohm of Australia qualified fastest after being under world-record pace on the opening lap.
