Silver lining for Peaty after missing out on historic treble by 0.02 seconds

British star short of his best as Italy’s Martinenghi snatches shock win by barest margin

- Andy Bull

Some of the swimmers 2 waved when they stepped on to the dark pool deck for the men's 100m breaststroke final, some of them punched the air, pressed their hands together in prayer, or cupped their hands to their ears.

Adam Peaty did not so much as flicker his eyes left or right. The defending Olympic champion walked straight ahead to the blocks, and set himself for the race ahead. Win it, as he did in Rio and Tokyo, and he would become the third swimmer in history, after Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky, to win gold in the same event at three consecutive Olympic Games.

He lost. A minute later, 59.05sec to be precise, Peaty touched the wall in second. He was just twohundredths behind the Italian Nicolò Martinenghi, who was out in lane seven. So it was silver, and he even had to share it with Nic Fink from the USA, who finished dead level with him.

Qin Haiyang, Peaty's great Chinese rival, was well back behind all three of them in seventh place. He and Peaty had been neck-and-neck through the first 50m, and at halfway Qin was five-hundredths of a second up. But Qin slipped back through the second 50m. Peaty won that race, but found himself, all of a sudden, in another one against Fink and Martinenghi.

It was the first time anyone had ever beaten Peaty in an individual Olympic race. He took it with good grace. As soon as the results were out, he made his way over to lane seven and wrapped Martinenghi up in a hug.