Slovenia’s Damir Dugonjic (26.70) and Kevin Cordes of the USA (26.93) also posted fast times going into the semis.
Advertisement
The South African had predicted the record would be lowered again when the pair battle over the sprint distance in Tuesday night’s semi and Wednesday’s final as Peaty was just 0.06secs slower in his earlier heat.
Peaty’s gold was his country’s first at a world championships since Liam Tancock won the 50m backstroke in Shanghai in 2011.
KAZAN, Russian Federation (AP) – Adam Peaty of Britain has set a world record in the 50-meter breaststroke at the world swimming championships.
Elsewhere, Siobhan O’Connor won bronze in the women’s 200m individual medley final.
Elsewhere Dan Wallace qualified fourth fastest for the men’s 200m individual medley final in a time of one minute 57.77secs, while Roberto Pavoni faces a swim-off after finishing joint eighth with American Conor Dwyer.
Two more world records fell on the third night of swimming at Kazan Arena, where a cool breeze swept through the soccer stadium.
“I knew there was something in there, but I decided to just stay relaxed and enjoy the environment, but I went out to prove something”, said Peaty, who won the 100m world title by beating Van der Burgh on the wall in Monday’s final.
“That was really good”, said Peaty. “But I stepped up and didn’t get taken away by the occasion”.
Hunt, who let slip a 38-point final-round advantage to finish with silver at the last World Championships, made no such mistake this time around, claiming victory with 629.30 points.
Having swum the anchor leg, Halsall said Britain’s gold was poetic justice after their unofficial world record time of 3:44.02 to win the event at last August’s European championships in Berlin was still waiting to be ratified. That is a requirement for world-record status, says FINA, the worldwide federation now, having talked to British Swimming to explain, yet to provide a final decision on whether the standard will stand in the thread of history or not.
The 50m breaststroke begins in Kazan on Tuesday, with the final taking place on Wednesday.
Advertisement
Fresh from winning the women s 100m world title on Tuesday, Australia s Emily Seebohm was fifth fastest into Thursday s 50m final as China s Fe Yuanhai clocked the quickest time of 27.18secs.
