The 21-year-old British swimmer made a big splash on his Olympic debut, shattering his own world record in the 100m breaststroke heats to power into the semi-finals (which took place at 06:16 this morning).
Peaty finished in 57.55secs, more than a second quicker than Yasuhiro Koseki, the second fastest qualifier, and Olympic gold seems an almost inevitability.
Peaty's Stats
- 28 - years since a British male last won Olympic gold in swimming
- .37 - Peaty took .37 seconds off his own world record
- 02 - In 2015, Peaty became the second GB swimmer to break the 100m breaststroke world record after Adrian Moorhouse in 1989
- 03 - gold medals won at last year’s World Championships in Kazan
Just over 12 months ago he became the first man in history to go under 58 seconds at the World Championships in Kazan to establish his position as a genuine force in the sport, and should he triumph in tomorrow morning’s final (assuming he gets there) he’d become the first British male to win Olympic gold in swimming since Adrian Moorhouse in the same event in 1988.