ADAM Peaty says his near-perfect week in the pool could land him yet another Commonwealth Games gold after he blasted through to the 50m breaststroke final – setting a new personal best in the process.
The 19-year-old triumphed in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday in a Games and British record time of 58.94 seconds to finish ahead of Olympic champion and world-record holder Cameron van der Burgh.
In doing so Peaty became the first British man to break the 59-second barrier in the 100m event – but he's not done yet and qualified second-fastest in the 50m last night.
This time he was behind South African van der Burgh, who set a new Commonwealth Games record of 26.80 – but Peaty has his eyes on another prize in Glasgow.
"It's been a great week," said Peaty, who clocked 26.99. "In the 50m I'm just trying to have fun. I'm trying to get a new personal best each time and it's going well.
"I think my chances (of medalling) are quite high if I stay strong, the main thing now is having fun. I might as well go out there and show the world what I can do.
"Cameron is a world-class swimmer and it's going to be a very close race. I'm just soaking it all in.
"I knew he (van der Burgh) would go out fast but the final is anyone's race and whoever wants it the most.
"I had a bit of a dodgy 200m (finishing fourth in the final), I wanted to get a personal best but you don't always get what you ask for and I came back in the 100m nice and strong.
"But it makes all the difference going below 27 in the 50m for the first time. There's a great crowd here and they pushed me to that."
Meanwhile,Molly Renshaw said it had been a week to remember after her medal-winning Games campaign ended in the semi-finals of the 100m breaststroke yesterday.
Renshaw won a stunning bronze in Saturday's 200m breaststroke final but she missed out on a spot in the final of 50m breaststroke on Thursday and the semi-finals again proved a step too far in the 100m.
Renshaw clocked 1:09.39 minutes in her semi-final to finish 12th overall but the 18-year-old insists her early exits in the lesser distances mattered little after her podium berth over the weekend.
"It's been an amazing week, a great experience and a learning curve as well, I can take a lot from it and learn from it," she said.
"It wasn't as fast as I was hoping to go. I was hoping to go a little bit faster obviously but I had a good day on Saturday, so overall it's been pretty good.
"I've learned a lot, I tried to control my nerves on Saturday. I think I've still got a lot to learn there but I'm just doing my thing.
"I obviously can't complain about my competition overall – it's my first Commonwealth Games and I've come away with a medal.
"I'm really happy with that and hopefully I can improve on that in future games."
Commonwealth Games England (CGE) leads and manages the participation of the Team England at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games. We work with sports, Sponsors and Sport England to support the development of athletes and their sports, and to achieve success at Games-time.
