2018 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- August 3-9, 2018 (swimming portion)
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Tollcross International Swimming Centre
- Meet Central
- Program
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- Live Stream (Europe w/ English commentary)
As originally reported:
The records keep on rolling in Glasgow, as British breaststroking ace Adam Peaty demolished a new world record in the 100m distance tonight.
After already notching a championship record in yesterday’s prelim, clocking 57.89, Peaty continued to lead the pack in last night’s semi-finals with a slightly slower 58.04. Tonight, however, the 23-year-old Olympic gold medalist produced an eye-popping mark of 57.10** to once again establish the fastest 100m breaststroke time in history. (originally reported as 57.00)
**NOTE – on day 3 of the European Championships, LEN announced that there was a timing issue that affected the following races:
Women’s 800m freestyle, Men’s 100m breaststroke, Women’s 100m butterfly, Men’s 100m freestyle semi-finals, Women’s 100m breaststroke semi-finals, Men’s 200m butterfly semi-finals
Launching off the blocks with a .47 reaction time, for once, the fastest of the field, Peaty opened in an impressive 26.65 and closed in 30.35 to produce the 57.00** time, a mark just .01 shy of his own personal goal of ‘Project 56’.
His time tonight rips .13 off of his previous World Record of 57.13 set en route to the top of the podium in Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games. Peaty now owns the 14 fastest performances ever in this 100m breaststroke race. We’ll see what he is able to do in the 50m breast on August 7th.
Teammate James Wilby also scored a new personal best in the race, stopping the clock at 58.64** to mark his first time ever under the 59-second threshold. He now sits behind Peaty as the 2nd fastest swimmer in the world this season.
Wow, watching that lead at the end reminded of what it used to look like watching Michael Phelps back in 2007 & 2008! Goosebumps
He is only 23 years old. He killing breastroke swimming. Very largeand powerful muscels also likely bodybuilder.
He needs to start lifting weights.
In breaststroke it’s so crucial to hit the wall perfectly. That’s why the time margins always fool me. It looks like nothing but ends up 4 or 5 tenths in this discipline.
Whenever a world record is at stake in breaststroke I’m always paying complete attention to whether or not the wall will show up at the absolute perfect distance from the final stroke. It did here, and that equated to the world record.
Peaty will need similar ideal spacing when 56 is in play
Only it’s not the wall that shows up but the swimmer who spaces his strokes to perfection and Peaty is exceptional in that.
Very manly.
I think it’s crazy how Peaty could go 56 before anyone else even goes 57
I am not a swim mechanics expert- can anyone tell me or guess why Peaty is so far ahead of the world? Physique, technique, can’t be aerobic capacity in such a short race. Has anyone spotted his X factor?
It’s his left pinky toe!
Technique and power. Tremendous upper strength for the catch and in-sweep and unreal heel speed/narrow kick to generate that absurd turnover. He has the most narrow kick of any elite male breaststroker, which minimizes drag at that pace. It’s also the reason his underwaters aren’t the greatest compared to the wider kickers. Lily King has a very similar arms dominant/very narrow kick/high turnover on the women’s side.
Don’t forget, no sculling, that unnecessary waste of time. And no gliding. For years, I wrote here, no sculling and no gliding, and narrow pull – that is modern breaststroke, the way King and Petty are swimming it. Before King, Ruta did it first.
Interesting that we can watch the same swim and have such different perspectives. Looking at the underwater footage frame by frame, I’m seeing a pull that’s scull heavy, and no narrower than any others I’ve seen. There’s definitely a distinct out and insweep and pausing the video at the widest part shows hands at least 2x shoulder width. The kick is narrow though.
I think there are 3 things that make the difference: 1. he maximizes the front of his stroke because he is strong enough and has the water feel (see Josef Nagy’s interview on this site regarding palms-down recovery) to get propulsion at full reach at high tempo. 2. He lunges with his trunk and upper body… Read more »
Many swimmers have incredible power output (often at the expense of drag production), and some are great at swimming with technique that creates low resistance. Somehow Peaty can generate massive power in positions / planes that create low resistance (his arm stroke is way out in front of his body and his leg kick is very small). This becomes even more relevant at higher speeds. His high rate combined with high power and low resistance = mind boggling speed. How to achieve those traits is another matter!
It looks like all the reaction times from the first few events were around 0.1 faster than normal. I hope this didn’t impact the overall times and is just block error.