Adam Peaty the one to beat
Peaty makes big statement with world-record time in the 100m breaststroke heats
Adam Peaty launched his quest to end 28 years of Olympic hurt for Britain's male swimmers by romping to a world-record time in the 100 metres breaststroke heats yesterday morning (Singapore time).
Peaty clocked an eye-popping 57.55 seconds on the opening day of competition, lowering the world mark of 57.92 that he set in London in April last year when he became the first man to break through the 58-second barrier.
"Fifty-seven-five, not too shabby," Peaty said.
"I wasn't even pumped up. You can either be shy of the arena or you can take advantage of it.
"I don't know how much faster I can go but, hopefully, it will be a good race," he added, looking forward to the semi-finals with the final scheduled for this morning.
"We're not going to get too complacent. We're going to keep striving, keep pushing the boundaries."
Peaty said he knew his first 50m was fast and his turn sharp, but it was not until he heard the crowd roaring with 25m remaining that he realised something special was happening.
"There's no Brazilians in this race, they've got to be shouting for something," he said.
Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki was second fastest behind Peaty in 58.91 and Brazil's Felipe Franca third in 59.01.
Aussie Jake Packard, second to Peaty in their heat in 59.26, was sixth fastest overall.
Defending champion Cameron van der Burgh, who qualified seventh quickest for the semis, insisted the gold medal was still up for grabs, despite Peaty's remarkable swim.
"It's a great swim from him, obviously, a world record - anytime you do that is really special," said the South African.
"But there's no use in me expending any extra energy when I don't need to. That's my game plan and I'm sticking to that.
"Tomorrow's the big one. That's all we care about."
Van der Burgh also looked to gain a psychological edge before the gold- medal race.
"Obviously the Olympic final is a different animal, something really spectacular and different to any other race," he said.
"The final is a different ball game - you see guys smashing times in the semis and crumbling in finals." - AFP.
No British
man has won an
Olympic swimming title since Adrian Moorhouse in the 100m breaststroke in 1988 - before Adam Peaty was even born.
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