Peaty wins fourth straight European Aquatics Championships 100m breaststroke title

British breaststroke king Adam Peaty continued his dominance in the stroke by clinching the men's 100m breaststroke gold medal at the LEN European Aquatics Championships Budapest 2021 on Tuesday (18 May 2021), his fourth straight European title in the event.

Peaty swam a 57.66, which, although not near his world record time of 56.88, was still comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.

Dutchman Arno Kammings (58.10) and Peaty's teammate James Wilby (58.58) were his closest challengers as the 26-year-old Briton clinched his 13th long-course European title.

"I’m very happy with this gold. All the hard work paid off," Peaty said. "It is really difficult to go under 58 when you are under a heavy workload ahead of this summer."

Earlier, Simona Quadarella staked her position as perhaps the strongest challenger to U.S. Olympic champion Katie Ledecky in the women's 800m freestyle.

The Italian, who touched home in 8:20.23, took her fourth career long-course European title ahead of a pair of Russians, Anastasia Kirpichnikova (8:21.86) and Anna Egorova (8:26.56).

"I’m really satisfied. I did not prepare for this in particular but it unfolded more than fine. The time is good, I did hope to have a little bit better but it is a good sign for the summer," Quadarella said.

There was a tie for gold in the women's 100m breaststroke, with Frenchwoman Marie Wattel and Greece's Anna Ntountounaki both clocking 57.37 seconds in an incredible evening of finals that also saw a tie for silver in the women's 50m freestyle.

Wattel and Ntountounaki both touched the timing pad at the same time ahead of Sweden's Louise Hansson (57.56).

In that women's 50m free final, Dutchwoman Ranomi Kromowidjojo, the London 2012 Olympic champion in the event, showed why she is still one to watch in the shortest event in the pool.

"I felt strong in the water today," Kromowidjojo said. "Just below 24 seconds is not that far from my personal best. I’m happy for the medal at the Europeans but it is good to get back mentally to competition mood."

Denmark's Pernille Blume, who won Rio 2016 gold to take the title from Kromowidjojo, tied with Poland's Katarzyna Wasick on 24.17 for silver.

Kolesnikov breaks record

In the non-Olympic men's 50m backstroke final, Russia's Kliment Kolesnikov smashed his world record from Monday's semi-finals.

The hot favourite had clocked 23.93 on Monday, becoming the first man under 24 seconds. Incredibly, he took another 0.13 seconds off that time, just minutes after competing in the semi-finals of the 100m free.

"I swam 100m free fifteen minutes ago so I was a bit tired. At the same time, I was full of energy, mental energy and just tried to fire myself up," he said.

Robert-Andrei Glinta of Romania (24.42) and Spain's Hugo Gonzalez (24.47) completed the podium.

The last final of the evening was the mixed 4x200m freestyle relay, which saw the Freya Anderson-anchored Great Britain win gold.

Great Britain led the race from start to finish, although Italy – and third swimmer Federica Pellegrini – closed the gap to within 0.14 seconds at the 600m mark.

The Brits held on to touch in a championship record time of 7:26.67, ahead of Italy (7:29.35) and Russia (7:31.54).