Peaty’s triumph inspires Proud to surprise success
Adam Peaty claimed an expected title before proving the inspiration for Great Britain team-mate Ben Proud to secure a surprise gold medal at the World Championships here last night.
Peaty bettered his championships record to finish in 57.47 seconds, but his own world record of 57.13sec set last August in winning Olympic gold in Rio was beyond him. Moments after Peaty had received his second successive 100metre breaststroke world title, Proud won the 50m butterfly. Proud had qualified fourth fastest, but built on a superb start to touch the wall first in 22.75sec.
Peaty was 1.32sec clear of the field and was happy with his performance after a first length which was 0.11sec under world record pace. “The way I swam it is very encouraging for me for the future,” Peaty said. Proud and Peaty, both 22, won gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
It has taken Proud a little longer to take a global title, in his third World Championships, but he paid tribute to trailblazer Peaty. “He has really taken Britain a step forwards,” Proud said. “It’s made it easier for that next person to go up and win gold. We saw it two years ago with James Guy. Britain’s a force to be reckoned with.”
Guy won the 200m freestyle title in Kazan, Russia in 2015 and qualified second fastest in defence. Fastest was team-mate Duncan Scott.
Peaty’s long-term goal is ‘Project 56’, clocking under 57sec, and another gold at Tokyo 2020. Yet he was thrilled to win by a handsome margin from Kevin Cordes of the United States. Bronze went to Kirill Prigoda of Russia, while Briton Ross Murdoch was eighth. “I went out there with a lot of guts,” said Peaty, who is hoping to retain his 50m breaststroke title from 2015.
“If you want to go 56 you’re going to have to do stuff you’ve never done before and I was out in a 26.5 – that was very, very easy.”
Siobhan-marie O’connor, the Olympic silver medallist, had to settle for seventh behind Katinka Hosszu in the 200m individual medley. Sarah Vasey and Kathleen Dawson advanced to the 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke final, respectively, in eighth place.