Adam Peaty’s Project 56 was conceived after Rio and remains a target for Tokyo in three years’ time.
Project 25 came into existence on Tuesday morning and Peaty had already achieved it by the evening after back-to-back world records in the heats and finals of the 50m breaststroke.
Crowned champion over 100m breaststroke on Monday, just as he was a year ago at the Olympics in Rio, Peaty was back to cement his status as the biggest male star in the sport.
In the shorter event, his time of 26.10 seconds in the heats left the crowd gasping, and long-time adversary Cameron van der Burgh convinced he had nothing left to give.
Peaty had other ideas however, romping to a scarcely-believable 25.95 in the semi-final – achieving a time few thought was even possible eight hours earlier.
The 22-year-old said: “After Rio everyone was saying Project 56 and I kind of went along with it and said ‘Yes, go on then’.
“Then after this morning people were saying Project 25 and I said ‘Yes, go on then’.
“But I just dived in tonight, I thought ‘I feel good’, I wasn’t that far behind after the start, which is a bonus for me.
“I enjoyed it tonight but it’s nothing without the gold that goes along with it so I’m going to be focusing now, stay neutral and see what we get tomorrow.”
Peaty will be going for a fifth world title tomorrow but while he managed two world records, there were no medals for Britain in the pool on Tuesday.
That was because 200m freestyle duo Duncan Scott and James Guy couldn’t quite live up to their rankings in the first final of the night, settling for fourth and fifth respectively.
The fastest qualifier in his maiden 200m freestyle final, Scott was a little off the pace early on, finishing in a time of 1:45.26, exactly a tenth slower than in his semi-final.
That would have been good enough for bronze, while Guy was similarly just off his semi-final pace, but despite missing out on the medals, Scott was staying positive.
“Initially I’m disappointed. Even now it’s not a disappointment though, I’ve got to keep my head held high,” said the University of Stirling swimmer.
“It’s a first individual 200m free final and international experience, it’s what I came here to do in the 200.
“Finishing fourth and not doing my best time in the final is pretty gutting but I’m just going to have to move on from that.”
While Scott was competing in his first major individual 200m freestyle final, Kathleen Dawson and Sarah Vasey were even less experienced.
Both at their first major championships, Dawson had qualified for the final of the 100m backstroke, while Vasey went into the final of the 100m breaststroke.
In a race where Gemma Spofforth’s world record fell after eight years – Canadian Kylie Masse taking two hundredths off her time – Dawson could only manage eighth in a time 59.90.
Meanwhile Vasey matched her in one of the most anticipated races of the meet, as American Lilly King broke the world record to take gold.
Sportsbeat 2017