Adam Peaty settles for third place
Staffordshire’s Adam Peaty had to settle for third place in the 50 metres breaststroke final on day one of the European Short-Course Swimming Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The 22-year-old, who won Olympic gold over 100 meters breaststroke at the Rio 2016 Games, clocked a British record of 25.70 seconds as Italy’s Fabio Scozzoli won gold in a European record of 25.62secs.
Russia’s Kirill Prigoda was second in 25.68s.
Peaty is competing in the 25m pool event without fully resting, with his major targets in 2018 April’s Commonwealth Games and August’s European Championships in the 50m pool in his sights.
The short-course world record remains at 25.25, set by South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh eight years ago.
The 25m pool is quicker due to more turns and the benefit of a push off the wall.
Peaty lowered the long-course (50m) pool record twice in a day en route to gold at July’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, to take the mark to 25.95.
But the short-course mark remains beyond the Loughborough swimmer for now.
Peaty is also slated to swim the 100m and 200m breaststroke this week.
