Peaty back on the World Champs podium in Doha

Opening up the finals session, world-record holder Peaty went into the race ranked fastest from the semi-finals, building well ahead of April's British Swimming Championships and this summer's Olympic Games.

Adam was second at the turn in the final after moving his way through the field from the start, and he remained in a tussle for the lead with Nic Fink down much of the second 50m, before ultimately touching third, behind Fink and Nicolo Martinenghi. 

Peaty's bronze follows the hat-trick of world titles he won in this event in 2015, 2017 and 2019 - the last World Championships he competed in - and Adam reflected afterwards on the bigger picture of this performance in Olympic year.

"It's bittersweet because we didn't come here for medals, I wasn't really too fussed about aiming for those medals because that's just not the target, we've come off a hard bank of work," said the 29-year-old.

"Last night gave me a little glimmer of hope that I could get faster even today, and maybe I would have if I'd executed those skills. I'm disappointed in that essence, but I have also got to make sure I don't wear it, because it has been a long time since I've been in this.

"You've got to get that balance right. My happiness now in the sport comes from knowing I couldn't have done anything more, and tonight I knew I could have done something more. But I said out there that if I'd got what I wanted tonight and maybe it would have equalled the best possible performance I could have done here, maybe that would have been just as dangerous as not getting what I wanted, because this is going to push me, to make sure we're executing those skills perfectly."

The other final of the night saw Abbie Wood racing from an outside lane in the Women's 200m Individual Medley. 

Abbie progressed her swims from round to round - a key focus for every athlete at this time in the season - and put in a consistently-paced swim across the four strokes to place sixth in the final, with a solid February showing making for a promising start to the meet for the Loughborough Performance Centre swimmer. 

Three GB athletes booked themselves finals tickets for Tuesday, with Lauren Cox and Kathleen Dawson qualifying for the Women's 100m Backstroke, fifth and seventh-fastest respectively, while Duncan Scott was eighth into the Men's 200m Freestyle showpiece.

"I'm just happy to get in there and get another opportunity, so I can get three 200m Freestyle races in, that'll be quite nice. That was tough again tonight, but hopefully we can get in and amongst it tomorrow evening, it should be good fun," said Scott.

"This is the sort of quality that I need to go up against and it'll put me in good stead come the trials. That 200m Free is pretty stacked for Britain, so I need to be used to being in close races and really challenging for myself, and I'm able to do that here."

Dawson, meanwhile, will prepare for a first global final since Tokyo 2020 in the 100m Backstroke finale, after overcoming injury in recent years that saw her miss the 2022 and 2023 World Championships.

"I feel very fortunate to be back here, I'm honestly just happy to be back racing on the world stage again. We're just taking this as a training phase, being here, which is kind of unfortunate to say, being at the World Championships - but it's a different type of year. The main event is the Olympics, so this is just a stepping stone to that," she said. 

Earlier in the day, Luke Greenbank was 23rd in the heats of the Men's 100m Backstroke, while Jack McMillan ranked 26th in the 200m Freestyle.