Peaty and Proud continue GB’s gold rush
ADAM PEATY has praised the new ‘fearless’ breed of swimmers as Great Britain won two more golds in Glasgow on the final day of the European Championships. Peaty claimed his fourth medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay team after Ben Proud claimed a comfortable win in the 50m freestyle final. But it has been the emergence of young talent such as Freya Anderson which caught the eye. The 17-year-old picked up bronze in the final race of the event — the 4x100m medley relay — to take her own medal tally to three. Fellow teenagers Holly Hibbott and Imogen Clark also won medals. ‘They have been fearless,’ said Peaty. ‘And in four years’ time maybe they will be standing here with four gold medals.’ Peaty’s medley relay team, composed of himself, Nicholas Pyle, Duncan Scott and James Guy, set a new championship mark to complete his perfect European record. Despite winning gold, Proud was not satisfied after failing to build on the championship record he set in the semi-final. ‘I’m very happy with the 21.11 (on Wednesday), and I guess 21.3 is fast enough to win gold but when I have to go against the rest of the world, it won’t be fast enough,’ he said. Team GB finished with a total of 24 medals — including nine golds — leaving them second only to Russia with 26 in the pool. In diving, Jack Laugher’s gold rush in 2018 continued with victory in the men’s 3m springboard in Edinburgh. Laugher’s win was his second of the championships, with the prospect of a third with partner Chris Mears to come today. Laugher said: ‘There are still a lot of things to improve on, but I’m happy with the outcome and to beat the Russians.’