Beaten at last, but Peaty says it’ll do him good
HE lacerated himself when he won gold and last night he celebrated the virtues of a first defeat in four years. Never let it be said that anything is straightforward in the mind of Adam Peaty.
It’s a weird and wonderful place and that is strangely appropriate because, to Peaty, so is the Gold Coast, summed up by his shock loss here in the 50 metres breaststroke.
He had warned that one was coming just two days earlier, when he doused any praise of his easy win in the 100m with a meandering whinge about everything from his stroke to his attitude. No one believed him, of course.
But there he was yesterday, second off the blocks to South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh and then beaten to the wall by 0.04sec. there was an interesting symmetry in it all, because Van der Burgh is the only man to have defeated him in a 50m pool in the past four years, and that was way back in the 50m final at Glasgow 2014.
Since then Peaty has grown into a monster, winning every gold medal available in both the longer and shorter distance, and holds the world record in both.
But he suspected he was fallible of late and in a champion’s perversion seemed oddly pleased to have been proven right, given his belief that a defeat will do more good for him ahead ead of tokyo 2020 than yet et another win.
‘It’s probably one of the worst- feeling races I’ve ever done,’ he said. ‘But even though it’s a silver, I’m more happy with that silver than I was s the gold the other day. y.
‘It gives me a reality ality check. Even if you are the best in the world, world-record holder, you can still be beaten. I think that’s the most valuable lesson from today.
‘Some people have down days and today was a down day for me. I was probably working at 90, 95 per cent. But to win races like that, when it comes down to a very fine margin, I need to be 100 per cent. As an athlete, obviously I’m disappointed. I’ve never had a 50m Commonwealth title. I’ve had the rest, but not this one. ‘But I’m happy for Cameron. He’s put the work in... he’s enjoying the sport and obviously performing as well. I’ve got to take a lolook at myself now and try tto get that enjoyment fullfully out of it. I need to tatake that enjoyment to ttraining because tthat’s where my performance will shift on tto new heights.’ It has been interesting iinteresting to hear Peaty spspeak in such terms at thethese Games, where his procl-proclamations have fluctuated tuated-fluctuated betweenb suggestions of going unbeaten in the 100m for another decade and then his more sombre comments over the challenges of motivating oneself when all you do is win. the proof of that challenge has been evident in this England team where all three of the leading lights have suffered big upsets — Max Whitlock will consider one gold and a silver a poor return from the gymnastics, likewise Alistair Brownlee and his mixed relay silver in the triathlon. Peaty and his 50m silver join the list.
there was a more heartening tale in the squash where James Willstrop won gold after being the beaten finalist in the Games of 2010 and 2014. the 34-year-old, so often in the shadow of England team-mate Nick Matthew, beat New Zealand’s Paul Coll 11-9, 11-4, 11-6.
In gymnastics, Nile Wilson, 22, strengthened the argument that he could be England’s next Whitlock after winning gold on the horizontal bar — his third gold of the Games, adding to two silvers. team-mate Alice Kinsella, 17, won on the women’s beam, taking England’s gymnastics tally to 16 medals, including six golds.
It was also a strong day for Wales. Swimmer Alys thomas won the 200m butterfly, while para-athlete Hollie Arnold and the men’s bowls pair of Marc Wyatt and Daniel Salmon took golds.