Adam Peaty is on track to make it a hat-trick of golds at the European Championships in Berlin after smashing the championships record on the way to qualifying for the men’s 50m breaststroke semi-finals.
On Tuesday Peaty beat Scot Ross Murdoch to take the men’s 100m breaststroke title before then forming part of the 4x100m mixed relay team which won gold in a world-record winning time.
The 19-year-old is having a summer to remember after also winning double gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The silver came in the men’s 50m breaststroke but he put down a marker of intent for gold in Friday’s morning session in Germany, winning the fifth and final heat in 26.91 seconds.
It saw him claim the championships record to progress through to this evening’s semi-finals as the fastest qualifier, 0.34 seconds ahead of nearest challenger Caba Siladji of Serbia.
Peaty was one of six Brits to progress out of the morning’s preliminaries with Georgia Davies leading the team’s charge in the women’s 50m backstroke.
The 100m backstroke bronze medallist posted 28.05 seconds to win heat five and progress second fastest overall, while Fran Halsall, a member of the gold-medal winning mixed relay team and 50m butterfly bronze medallist on Tuesday, was fourth fastest with Elizabeth Simmonds qualifying in 13th.
Also progressing was Adam Barrett who qualified sixth fastest in the men’s 100m butterfly with Shauna Lee also making it through the women’s 200m freestyle heats in 11th.
© Sportsbeat 2014