The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Gold-en girls.
Scots Neah Evans, left, and Katie Archibald, right, joined Laura Kenny and Elinor Barker to claim GB’s first gold medal at the European Championships in Glasgow with an emphatic victory in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
Adam Peaty refused to rule out the possibility of breaching new boundaries in Glasgow tonight after cruising through to the men’s 100-metres breaststroke final at the European Championships .
The 23-year-old believes he sent out a statement that he is back in the hunt to lower his own world record having blazed through his first qualifying heat in 57.89 seconds – the seventh fastest time in history.
Peaty returned to the Tollcross pool in the evening to win his semi-final in a slightly slower time of 58.04 seconds, still a league ahead of the second fastest qualifier, his Great Britain team-mate James Wilby.
It is a mark of Peaty’s dominance of the event that he talks realistically of smashing the almost-mythical 57second barrier while no other swimmer – past or present – has gone under 58 seconds in the event.
Peaty said: “This morning was a great swim but there was no emotion in there tonight – I wasn’t using the crowd or any of the supplements I usually use beforehand, so it was probably a seven-out-of-10 engagement.
“Tomorrow is about executing the race I want to execute. I’ll be on my full game. I don’t know whether it (sub-57 seconds) is going to be tomorrow but I always say it’s possible – but I’m not concentrating on that.”
Peaty had arrived in Glasgow on the back of a relatively disappointing Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where despite winning his favoured 100m discipline his aura of invincibility slipped when he had to settle for silver over the 50m distance.
Subsequent soul-searching persuaded Peaty to change his psychological approach to the sport having admitted there were times when he had began to question whether his relentless training schedule was all worthwhile.
Now he is convinced he is ready to reap the rewards of that process, and if his world record of 57.13 will prove a stretch tonight there is a growing inevitability that the mark will not take too long to lower.
Referring to his performance in Australia, Peaty added: “I’m a completely different guy now – I’m really just racing for the enjoyment and to make my family proud, instead of all this extra stuff that’s around me.
“Most athletes need a loss to make sure you get back to winning. It makes the wins even more valuable and a little bit better. I’m back to enjoying it and I’m looking forward to having a good night’s sleep and a good final tomorrow.”
Scot Hannah Miley touched out her Great Britain team-mate Aimee Willmott to take bronze in the women’s 400m individual medley behind winner Fantine Lesaffre of France.
It marked a measure of revenge for the 28-year-old who had been denied gold by Willmott in the same event at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April.
Miley said: “It’s so nice to be able to come away with a medal – I’ve been touched out so many times.
“I had my first European Championships in 2006 so to still be medalling at a European Championships in 2018 is very nice.
“Initially I thought I was fifth or sixth, so when I looked up and realised I was in the top three, it was just nice to come away with something.”
Perth swimmer Stephen Milne narrowly failed to qualify for the 400m freestyle final.
The world 4x200m relay gold medallist clocked 3:50.05secs in heat three and then had to wait to see what his rivals could do in heat four.
Milne eventually finished 12th overall, missing out on a place in the final by just 0.38secs.