Olympic champion swimmer Adam Peaty says he is “heartbroken” after finishing outside the medal positions in the Commonwealth Games 100m breaststroke final.
But with Peaty’s shock defeat came success for England as his compatriot James Wilby took the gold.
Peaty is the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder in his favorite event, where he had not lost in eight years and never before in a grand final.
A broken foot had ruled him out of the World Championships in Budapest earlier this summer, but he unsurprisingly held the lead halfway through the final in Birmingham.
Image: England’s James Wilby ahead of Adam Peaty and Australia’s Joshua Yong
However, he struggled for momentum and was pipped by Wilby, who was first to touch the wall in 59.25 seconds at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.
Zac Stubblety-Cook was second in 59.52 seconds and compatriot Sam Williamson third in 59.82 seconds, 0.04 ahead of fourth-placed Peaty, champion at Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast in 2018 who failed to place the finger in a time that was just under three seconds below his personal best of 56.88s.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Peaty, who hinted he won’t be at next month’s European Championships.
‘Lost Spark’
“At the moment I don’t see the point of doing something that wouldn’t do so well, we’ll see.
“I don’t know what went wrong. With 25 meters to go I had nothing in the tank. Maybe that’s overexposure to the foot. Sometimes you just have a bad run, I can’t pinpoint where I went wrong. There’s a lot of debriefing to do I need a hard reset now.
“It was a slow final, I can’t remember the last time I was that slow. It just didn’t go well. Of course I’m disappointed, but that’s what makes you go faster next time.
“I’ve lost a little bit of that spark, whether it’s with my foot, but I’ll try to find it over the next few months and over the next two years (before the 2024 Paris Olympics).”
Read more about the Games: Fan ‘covered in blood’ as English cyclist crashes into crowd. Analysis: Are the Commonwealth Games fit for the 21st century?
Wilby has been in Peaty’s shadow for so long and admitted, after winning 200m silver earlier this week, that he looked to his swimming future after last year’s Olympics, where won a relay medal but finished off the podium positions in the individual event.
Asked if this was the best moment of his career, Wilby said: “It’s definitely a special moment that I’ll remember forever.
“For me it just sums it up, enjoyment and fun back in the sport is everything. We’ve all seen faster times than this, but I love it, and that’s what got me to the top of the podium this time.
“Everything else doesn’t matter. I’ll always have that medal, I’ll always love looking at it and remembering the moments that got it here.”
Learning to walk… and months later winning the gold
Image: Alice Tai: ‘It’s a bit surreal’
Alice Tai was another English gold medalist on Sunday night, winning the S8 women’s 100m backstroke final, just months after having her right leg amputated below the knee.
“It’s kind of surreal,” he said.
“I started and ended last season with surgery, got out of Tokyo and then had an amputation in January. I’ve been learning how to walk this year and getting back in the pool was kind of fun because I missed swimming.”
Wales’ Lily Rice finished third.
James Guy took bronze in the men’s 200m butterfly final, where Chad le Clos’ silver took him to 18 medals at the Commonwealth Games, equaling the overall record held by shooting pair Michael Gault and Phil Adams.
Wales’ Medi Harris was bronze medalist in the women’s 100m backstroke, while the quartet of Freya Colbert, Tamryn van Selm, Abbie Wood and Freya Anderson also finished third in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay final.