RIO DE JANEIRO – Adam Peaty smashed his own world record for the second time in two days on Sunday to win 100 metres breaststroke gold and become the first British male swimmer in 28 years to win an Olympic title.
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But things looked more positive in the pool, with Adam Peaty smashing his own world record to take first spot in his heat of the 100m breaststroke, nearly two seconds ahead of Scotland’s Ross Murdoch.
And just minutes later, Jazz Carlin won silver in the women’s 400m freestyle.
Adam Peaty rooms with James Guy at the Rio Olympics but Britain’s big swimming hope clearly pays no attention to his team mate’s advice. “Hopefully we’ll push this forward”.
Peaty’s constant reference point in his discussion of how he has journeyed from a sometimes hard 14-year-old to here was his coach, Mel Marshall, who he works with at the City of Derby club.
“I’m not only proud of him but also for the upcoming swimmers because he’s inspired so many people”.
“I wasn’t thinking about the time [the world record], just to get to the wall first and get to the other wall first”, he said.
Looking visibly stunned after the race she said: “I honestly can not believe it – I’m on the edge of tears”.
He said: “I did it for my country because that means so much to me”. The world champion was the eighth fastest to progress to the final, yet he is an outsider for a medal behind Son Yang of China and world record holder Paul Biedermann.
Asked what she thinks he will make of her new-found Twitter fame, she said: “I think he will be all right and say “Go for it”.
“I knew it would be a tough race and obviously Katie raced for the world record and I was just trying to stick to her and have a great race”. “I knew from the warm-up I could not go 57 (seconds)”. The last swimming gold meal was won by Adrian Moorhouse at the same event in 1988.
“It was 12 years ago and if I look back now, I’d say that was my defining moment as a coach”.
Adam’s sister Bethany Peaty, 23, who also celebrated with the family yesterday added: “I’m absolutely overwhelmed and I’m still in shock to be honest. I tried to stay calm before the race, but I am gobsmacked”.
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This came after earlier snaps where she expressed her exhaustion at sitting on the team bus for around 6 hours before the evenings events took place. But she wanted desperately to swim in this relay and said she cried when she received the text message that she would be part of this team.
