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Adam Peaty breezed into the semi-finals of the men’s 100 metres breaststroke as he got his bid for a historic third consecutive Olympic title under way.
The Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 champion, seeking to become just the second male swimmer after Michael Phelps to win Olympic gold at three successive Games, finished first in the fourth of five heats.
His time of 59.18 seconds was the second quickest time, 0.14 secs behind Dutch swimmer Caspar Corbeau, while James Wilby is also into the semis later on Saturday, finishing sixth overall in a time of 59.4s.
Peaty said: “There weren’t too many nerves but I think that comes down to experience. I’ve been in this position a lot of times and the heats are the heats. The playing field changes by the semi-finals and by the final as well.
“The whole field was a bit slow in the sense that when I saw the scores come in, I didn’t really have to push anything too far, I didn’t have to prove anything.
“We’ll see what we get tonight. The field is a little bit clustered and I’ll have to make sure I’m on my A-game just to make sure we get through to that final in a good lane.”
Peaty, who was cheered on by his young son George, added: “If anything, (I feel) too relaxed, in the sense that it doesn’t feel like we’re here but getting that swim done starts to wake up the mind.
“I think that’s just experience where I know I don’t have to spend the energy here. It’s just business, business and business again, that’s purely it.”
Keanna MacInnes squeaked into the women’s 100m butterfly semis, sealing the last qualifying spot of 16th by just 0.07s.
Kieran Bird missed out on a spot in the men’s 400m freestyle final but both men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relay teams reached tonight’s showpiece.
