Olympic Champ Adam Peaty: “I’m All About The Long-Term Investment”

2017 MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

• Saturday, October 21st – Sunday, October 22nd
• Manchester Aquatics Centre
• LCM
• Meet Site
• Entry Lists
• Day 1 Live Stream
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Live Stream
• Day 2 Finals
• Live Results

The 2017 Manchester International Swim Meet marked the seasonal debut of 2016 Olympic champion Adam Peaty. The 22-year-old took to the pool across the 3 breaststroke distances, easily winning the 50m and 100m events in respective times of 27.71 and 59.88. In the 200m event, a race in which the Loughborough athlete had not raced since 2016, Peaty stopped the clock at a mark of 2:16.62 to finish with a silver behind teammate James Wilby‘s winning time of 2:14.92.

Of his racing over the weekend, Peaty stated, “Happy with that time, it’s October so for the first hit-out of the year it’s very good for me and hopefully I’ll get back down to that 25. by the end of the season.  October is always a little bit difficult, in a very hard training block but I’ve picked up some good pointers of where I am.  I’m sleeping at 3000m a night at the moment, so it’s a lot harder to recover than what I’d usually be doing, so the training is absolutely solid but I’m all about the long-term investment. ”

Regarding the 200m breaststroke in particular, a distance Peaty says he’ll be incorporating more frequently into his meet program, he commented, “The 200m is a just a little bit of fun at the moment.  It’s making it a bit different but at the same time it benefits my 100m because especially after the World Championships the 100m became a little bit more difficult.  In the long-term I think it will benefit my 100m by building up my stamina.”

Also in the water was 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the 200m IM, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, making her return to racing post-World Championships. O’Connor was on the quiet side in her events, placing 2nd in the 200m breaststroke (2:30.77) and 50m butterfly (27.19) races, while also collecting a bronze in the 100m butterfly (59.77).

On her weekend’s performances, O’Connor said, “I really enjoyed it, I’m pretty pleased with my swim for October so it was good to come here and test myself, the more you race the better you feel when it comes to do trials or something.  It’s good to get some race practice and it’s good to race long course this time of the season, it’s a bit different to what I’m used to.

“I’m really pleased to have been selected for the Commonwealth Games already, it’s really nice to have my place secured so pressure is off there.  The trials are in December so I’d like to try to qualify in a few more events.  I know I’ve qualified in the 200m Individual Medley but last time at Commonwealth Games I had a really busy programme and I really enjoyed that so my aim is to qualify for a few more events and give myself another busy programme on the Gold Coast.”

All quotes courtesy of Manchester International Swim Meet.