Adam Peaty is convinced the morning starts for swimming finals are contributing to uncertainty in the pool at Tokyo 2020 and hopes defending his Olympic title sparks a gold rush for TeamGB.
Organisers have scheduled swimming finals to take place earlier in the day in the Japanese capital, with the heats being held in the evening.
There have been some notable shocks already, with home favourite Daiya Seto failing to make it out of the heats in the men's 400 metres individual medley, while Tunisian teenager Ahmed Hafnaoui earned an upset win from lane eight in the final of the 400m freestyle.
Coming into the Games, there was talk of whether Peaty could beat his own astonishing world record of 56.88 seconds in the 100m breaststroke.
While unable to do so, Peaty still dominated the competition, winning Monday's final in a time of 57.13, the fifth fastest of all time.
For 26-year-old Peaty, ensuring he got the job done was the all-encompassing motivator given the way others have struggled.
"To be honest, I've never known swimming like this before," Peaty told a roundtable of journalists after winning gold in Tokyo.
"Normally you've got a solid one-two or maybe three if you can call it. You can't really predict it, in the 400 free there was a Tunisian guy [Hafnaoui] who won it in lane eight.
"You can't predict that, so I think it is something to do with the morning finals and it's how the athletes adapt to that. I think it was the same in Beijing.
"Sport is changing and the way we adapt, we train, and focus on mind and body and how we have to balance those.
"I mean I'm fed up of talking about COVID but it's given us a chance to sort of really think differently about that and there's been a few breakout performances from COVID.
"Would the medal table look very different last year? We don't know and we'll never know, but yeah it's definitely different."
Peaty, who became a father within the last year, was very open about the pressures he has been through in recent times.
Asked about the contributing factors to that pressure, Peaty said: "I mean put it simply we've seen over these two days, maybe three days, which is a lot of unexpected performances.
"A lot of people who should be going in here defending and winning medals are kicked out, especially in swimming we had Daiya Seto who is Japanese in the 400IM, he didn't make the final.
"These Games are very, very different, and that's how we talk about pressure now. Mel [Marshall – Peaty's coach] said last night and a few of the other coaches have too, it's not about the times here, no one cares about the times, it's about the race, who wants it more in that last 20 metres.
"It made me think completely differently, that every single championships I chase times because that's kind of validation for my training, I've trained really well this season.
"But it doesn't matter here, it's about the race, getting on that wall first, but also taking in every single trip and every single moment I can for these Olympics and hopefully inspiring as many people as I can while doing it."
It was five years ago in Rio where Peaty won TeamGB's first gold of the Games, acting as the springboard for a hugely successful Olympics whereby Great Britain won 27 golds and finished second in the medal table.
His success in Tokyo was also TeamGB's first and was quickly followed by triumphs for Tom Daley and Matty Lee in the men's 10m synchronised diving, while Tom Pidcock won the men's cross-country in mountain biking.
"I literally caught it, I caught Tom and Matt on the last dive and it was anti-climactic for me because I don't know how many rounds there are in diving – and I saw them dive, and I saw the Chinese dive because I think they were the last to go and I saw Tom celebrating and I thought 'oh my God they must have won' and yeah that's the beauty," added Peaty, who became the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title.
"I said that it could be a catalyst, not that it's down to me, those athletes are amazing. But it shows you when we come together as a team and show that kind of community spirit anything is possible.
"We've got three golds, who knows what the rest is going to bring, what the rest of the week is going to bring.
"I know Duncan Scott is up in the morning on the 200 free and he's a very strong candidate for gold there. Hopefully we've got it rolling now and we'll see the gold rush, eh?"
VPs Sinclair, Rochester take aim at ASAJ leadership as Lyn opts out of re-election
After serving 14 years as President of the Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ), Martin Lyn has opted not to seek re-election, citing the need to refresh and reinvigorate the organisation with new leadership.
Lyn, whose time at the helm was spread across seven two-year terms, believes he has left the association in good standing with a solid platform on which the next president can build to drive the country’s aquatic sports product forward.
The new president will be selected at the ASAJ’s Annual General Meeting scheduled for December 5.
Georgia Sinclair and Lance Rochester, who served as vice presidents with responsibility for swimming and water polo respectively, under Lyn’s leadership, are said to be frontrunners in the race to take the reins.
“Sometimes you have to know when to step aside and let someone else take over. My accomplishments and achievements speak for themselves, and nobody can dispute the fact that I have done a significant amount of good during my time in charge. I also think it’s time for me to focus on other things as well and also allow the association to grow in a different direction,” Lyn told SportsMax.TV.
“For the first time in a while, there are people vying for the presidency and it is good that people’s ambitions towards leadership is stimulated. So, I am stepping down to allow the association to grow even bigger and better with fresh ideas because I have left a strong foundation on which the next president can build,” he added.
According to Lyn, his time at the helm boast outstanding contribution and great personal sacrifice, though his credibility, integrity and, by extension, leadership qualities, have been called into question on a number of occasions.
“The presidency is not an easy job in any federation. It wasn’t always easy to beg and beseech the minister (of sports) and Sports Development Foundation for funding or even to secure sponsorship, and of course, you and others don’t always see eye-to-eye for various reasons. But we have upgraded the system and most importantly we are in one of the best financial positions that we have been in, in years,” Lyn argued.
“The day-to-day running of the federation was up and down but the administration performed very well including the disciplinary committee. For the first time in a long time, we don’t have any disciplinary matters pending,” he noted.
Though celebrating some infrastructure development, as well as the recognition of five Jamaican officials on the World Aquatics list among his achievements, Lyn pointed out that he also had some regrets.
“Two regrets I have, and one is the fact that I have tried unsuccessfully to change the constitution of the ASAJ so that there are not so many gray areas because in the current constitution, there are a lot of loopholes. But the feedback was that we couldn’t just meet and discuss the constitution, so maybe I was a little premature in my approach, but it is something that I will encourage for the new administration to look at,” Lyn shared without going into details about his other regret, which had to do with how swim meets were conducted.
That said, Lyn left words of encouragement for the new administration which will boast familiar faces, as treasurer Florence Grizzle-Williams will battle incumbent Shauna Jackson for the post of Honorary Secretary.
Robyn-Ann Chin-Sang will be running unopposed for Vice-president in charge of artistic swimming, while Marlon McIntyre is the only candidate for the vice-president in charge of water polo.
Meanwhile, Hilary Brown-Nixon seems set to take the post of vice-president in charge of swimming.
“The first word of encouragement is to keep the train rolling, because we are on a very good path for success. I have dedicated a lot of time out of my life to do what I did, so which ever candidate takes over, they must be willing to invest the time and effort into moving the sport forward because it is to the benefits of the athletes and more so the country,” he ended.
On this day in 2010: Rebecca Adlington wins Commonwealth Games 800m gold
England’s Rebecca Adlington won gold in the women’s 800m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games on this day in 2010.
Adlington added the 800metres freestyle Commonwealth title to her Olympic crown as she dominated from the start at the Dr SP Mukherjee Aquatics Complex in Delhi.
The then 21-year-old qualified second fastest for the final behind Wendy Trott, but it did not take long for her to assume control and she was more than two seconds ahead after 200 metres.
Adlington stretched her advantage to seven metres at the halfway point before Trott started making inroads in an attempt to chase down the double Olympic gold medallist.
But Adlington’s unassailable advantage was never seriously threatened as she touched home in eight minutes 24.69 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of Trott and Australia’s Melissa Gorman.
Adlington was relieved that she had managed to deliver after being the favourite to win the race.
“It is the mental pressure I put on myself because I want it so badly,” she said. “I have got the pressure because I have experienced the feeling of being on top and worry that I might never experience that feeling again.
“I’ve got to enjoy the feeling of wins like these.”
Adlington won four medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games (Anthony Devlin/PA)
Adlington’s win was her third medal of the Games after previously claiming bronze in the 200m freestyle and 4x200m relay, and she went on to secure another gold medal in the 400m freestyle.
She added: “Coming here if I wanted to get a gold medal it was going to be in that event to be honest.
“I just decided to go for it and went for it from the start and at 400 saw I was a bit ahead and thought ‘I might as well stick at this pace, just keep it nice and smooth’.
“It wasn’t about the time at all there, this week has not been about times for anyone, it’s been about the racing.
“It’s been a long season so it’s nice to finish off with a gold medal.”
T&T's Blackman go in search of 100m freestyle medal after copping 50m free gold at World Junior Swim Champs
Trinidad and Tobago’s young sensation Nikoli Blackman continues to show marked improvements as he copped the 50 metres freestyle title in breathtaking fashion at the World Junior Swimming championships Wingate Institute in Netanya, Israel on Thursday.
Blackman, who earlier clocked a brisk personal best 22.33 seconds in the semi-finals, later underlined his class as one of the world's top young freestylers, as he won the final in 22.35s. He bettered a quality field with Australia’s Flynn Southam (22.43s) and Lorenzo Ballarati (22.47s) of Italy, taking silver and bronze respectively.
The home country was denied its first medal of the championships, as homeboy, Mikhail Povaliaev was fourth in 22.66s, while Javier Nunez of the Dominican Republic, still just a high school junior, was sixth in 22.73s.
Blackman’s performance follows the three gold medals won at last month’s Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago and surpassed those from last year’s edition of the World Junior Championships.
At World Juniors last September, Blackman was a finalist in the 50m freestyle and a semi-finalist in the 100m freestyle. He finished sixth in prelims of the 50m with 22.97s, then went 22.83s in both the semis and the final.
The University of Tennessee swimmer, who missed out on a medal in the 200m freestyle when he finished fifth in the heat in 1:50.36, is scheduled to contest the 100m freestyle on Friday
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
