Daily Times

BUDAPEST: Britain’s Adam Peaty failed to beat his own world record but was happy to defend the men’s 100m breaststroke title at the World Aquatic Championships on Monday. Peaty clocked a new championships record of 57.47 seconds with Kevin Cordes of the United States second at 1.32 back with Russia’s Kirill Prigoda third at 1.58. The 22-year-old was delighted to defend the world title he first won in Kazan two years ago with plenty of support from the Budapest crowd. “A lot of hard work goes into competing and the crowd were amazing, I want to thank everyone out there,” Peaty said after his win. “It was incredible, when I walked out I felt like I was in Britain, as everyone was cheering for me so much. “I’m very happy, I put in a 26.5 seconds (for the first 50m), then built off that on the back end.” Peaty had targeted his own world record of 57.13, set when he won the Olympic title last year in Rio de Janeiro, but came up short in his bid.

“I need to have a few more 57 lows to get down to 56, but I’m just going to follow that curve now and see where it goes,” he added. Peaty will now look to also defend his 50m world title in Wednesday’s final in his bid to repeat the breaststroke sprint double he achieved in Kazan. “It wasn’t easy, but there is a bit in reserve so it’s looking good for the 50m,” he added. He hopes his victory will trigger more swimming gold for his country after he became the first Briton to win in the Budapest pool. “We have quite a young team, with new faces after Rio, so it will hopefully give that a little bit of a push,” he added.

Published in Daily Times, July 25^th , 2017.