PEATY SURGE LANDS SILVER
ADAM PEATY spearheaded an heroic British effort to claim silver in the 4x100m medley relay at the World Championships last night — then warned his rivals he will transform from ‘boy-power’ to ‘man-power’ before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Peaty provided another demonstration of his awesome speed to claim his third medal of the Budapest event, as the British quartet took silver in the competition’s final event. The United States won gold in 3min 27.91sec as Caeleb Dressel took his seventh gold of the competition after combining with Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes and Nathan Adrian. However, the British foursome of Peaty, James Guy, Duncan Scott and Chris Walker-Hebborn pushed them all the way and clocked 3min 28.95sec to take silver. Peaty now has his eyes on ‘Project 56’ in his 100m breaststroke individual event. The world record for the 100m breaststroke remains the 57.13sec that he set in the Olympic final in Rio. ‘It’s all about how I get there,’ Peaty said. ‘I get a lot of criticism for my start. I will get even more ruthless. I am 22 and against 28-year-olds. ‘They are on man-power and I am still on boy-power so there is more to come. ‘Every year I’m gaining experience. I don’t really fully know myself. ‘I keep surprising myself and surprising myself. ‘Who knows when I’m going to fully know myself? It may take 10 years, it may take another year.’ The focus for the rest of the team is firmly on improving and building to challenge the Americans in Tokyo. ‘The big dance is in three years’ time,’ said Guy. ‘We are getting faster and faster each year.’ It was a particularly impressive time because Walker-Hebborn had been unwell during the run-up to the competition’s finale. ‘I’m alive. I put everything into it,’ he said. ‘It hurt like something else. I’m just glad I made it until the end of the week and got to swim with these boys.’ The relay silver saw Britain end the Championships with seven swimming medals. Peaty’s 50m and 100m breaststroke golden double, Ben Proud’s 50m butterfly win and the 4x200m men’s freestyle relay success on Friday were followed by two bronze medals on Saturday — for Proud in the 50m freestyle and Guy in the 100m butterfly.