Van der Burgh misses on gold at Fina champs

Adam Peaty gave Britain its first gold medal in the temporary pool at Kazan Arena with a comeback victory in the 100 breaststroke.

The Staffordshire 20-year-old pipped Olympic gold medallist Cameron van der Burgh by seven hundredths of a second, having trailed the South African for the whole race in Kazan.

Peaty, who also holds the world record at 57.92 seconds, said: “I turned, saw his feet and I thought ‘right, I’ve got a few catching up to do now.'”.

“I have had a lot of rivals over the years, they seem to change every year”, he said.

After winning gold for Britain in the 100m breaststroke final, Adam Peaty insists that his priority was a medal and not breaking his own world record.

“If I am just focused on trying to be beat Peaty then maybe another name like (Great Britain’s) Ross Murdoch or someone can come up and surprise you, like Peaty did a year ago”.

“I feel like the Olympic Games prepared me for anything that can be thrown my way and the amount of pressure we had to deal with at that competition was huge”.

He is also world record holder over 50m and 100m breaststroke.

Elsewhere, Hungary’s “Iron Lady” Katinka Hosszu broke the women’s 200m IM record on Monday as she retained her crown in Kazan.

Kanako Watanabe of Japan was second, with O’Connor third in 2:08.77.

O’Connor said afterwards: “I’m really happy to get the medal, I’m not particularly happy about the time”.

Russia’s Yuliya Efimova, whose doping ban ended earlier this year, led qualifying for the 100 breaststroke final on Tuesday night.

Commonwealth champion Ben Proud was the only other British finalist, finishing eighth in the 50m Butterfly. Guy won 400m freestyle silver on Sunday.

Liam Tancock and Chris Walker-Hebborn both secured spots in the 100m backstroke final.

Meanwhile, the women’s Water Polo team competed in the Championships today (Saturday) and lost 11 – 3 to New Zealand.