Adam Peaty put on a show at the Edinburgh International on Saturday as he produced the fastest 100m Breaststroke time in the world this year to take victory from a quality field.
Lining up alongside the likes of 2018 and 2014 Commonwealth Games 200m Breaststroke champions James Wilby and Ross Murdoch, Peaty produced a strong swim to touch first, over half a second faster than anyone had swam before this evening.
Showing the British strength in depth James Wilby pushed his National Centre Loughborough teammate all the way, his time also inside the previous world lead.
Commenting on his form at this early point in the season, Olympic champion Peaty said:
“This was a real confidence boost for me because I didn’t think I’d get anywhere near that. I’m stronger than ever in training but now it’s about resting up and seeing where we get mid-season. Here I didn’t think I’d get into that number one ranking spot.”
On Friday night Wilby had done duel with local hero Murdoch over their favoured 200m distance, again coming out on top, with both men pleased with their efforts for this point in the season.
Elaborating, Wilby said:
“I’m pretty happy with that. This is my second competition on the trot – I did Iowa last week and this one this week and I’m really happy to be consistently around these times, especially after all the travel.
“This cycle last year was really good for me, winning the Commonwealth Games, so I’m just looking to make incremental improvements on that, with the long term goal being Tokyo. With the work that’s being going on in the pool and the gym, and balancing University, I’m really happy with the position we’re in this far out from trials.”
Elsewhere James Guy has enjoyed a good couple of days, winning both the 200m Freestyle and 200m Butterfly, the former in a meet record to get the better of Duncan Scott by half a second.
Post-race Guy said:
“The 200m Freestyle felt ok; not amazing but it isn’t supposed to as we’re still five weeks from trials and hopefully we can progress that in a few weeks’ time. Last year was a really weird year – I’d had six or seven years of just PBing every year but last year was just a bit of an off year. We kind of knew what we were doing wrong and this year we’ve fixed that and I think I’ve shown that just then.”
In the first final of the meet, Swansea University’s Daniel Jervis delivered a measured performance to win by a huge margin in the 1500m Freestyle, whilst Duncan Scott took victory in the 200m Individual Medley and his Stirling training partner Aimee Willmott was also victorious in her favoured 400m Individual Medley.
Full results: http://swimscotland.co.uk/
The best of Briton will be in action again in a month’s time when the British Championships get underway at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre on Tuesday 16th April. Tickets are on sale now.