Adam Peaty launched his quest to end 28 years of Olympic hurt for Britain’s male swimmers by romping to a world-record time in the 100 metres breaststroke heats yesterday morning (Singapore time).
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This means Peaty now has the full set – he is a world champion, European champion, Commonwealth champion, world record holder and now an Olympic gold champion. “Nothing means more to me than racing for my country, racing for the Queen and the Royal Family, racing for my family”.
“I touched the wall, looked to my left and I was like, ‘Where is everybody?'”. I could see Katie was a bit in front and having a great swim so I just tried to hang on.
On Sunday night, she did just that, knocking almost two seconds off the world record in the 400 free to secure her first gold medal of these Games. All you’ve got to do is put 100 per cent effort in each day. Coming off the Worlds past year I was a bit anxious, I wasn’t aware of what it was going to be like to compete on the world stage.
Carlin was making her Olympic debut after illness denied her a chance to compete at London 2012 and said she was inspired by Peaty. Me and my coach [Mel Marshall] push forward every day.
Team GB’s women’s rugby sevens team continued their imperious form, cruising past Fiji 26-7 in the quarter-finals to set up a tough semi-final against one of the favourites New Zealand, who squeezed past the US in their quarter-final.
Click on the video above to watch Peaty make history in Brazil.
And he went quicker still in surging to a supreme victory.
He is the first swimmer ever to win both sprint breaststroke events at the same World championships, and the most successful British swimmer in a single World Championship. “I will be roaring for you”. I feel like I am in a good place.
South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh took the silver and the United States’ Cody Miller came away with the bronze.
He was constantly reminded to stay focused and take nothing for granted in the lead-up to the Games by his City of Derby coach of seven years Marshall.
But five-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave said: “Safety comes first. Down that last 50m I knew I was winning”, he added.
“You never put a limit on anything”. Do what you want.’ But fair play to Adam, he’s a great friend of mine and I’m really pleased for him.
We’ll leave the last word to Mavis, who tweeted prior to Peaty’s race: “This is what all that hard training has been for….”
Before her trip, she said: “Whenever I think about (Adam in the Olympics) my stomach starts churning and I haven’t even given the flight a thought”.
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Peaty was born in Uttoxeter and, according to his mother Caroline, as a child was so frightened of water that he would refuse to sit down in the bath. Then, in the Semi-Final, he didn’t quite meet the World Record but he did come out of the Semi-Final in overall first putting him in a very good position heading to the final. “That’s what I love to do”.
