Martinenghi ends Peaty’s ‘three-peat’ dream, Huske wins

Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won the men’s 100 metres breaststroke gold at the Paris Olympics yesterday and ended Adam Peaty’s “three-peat” bid to win the same event at three successive Games.
Peaty, hoping to become only the second male swimmer after retired U.S. great Michael Phelps to perform the triple, had to settle for silver alongside reigning world champion Nic Fink of the United States.
Both touched out in 59.05, just 0.02 of a second slower than Martinenghi’s relatively sedate time.
The Italian told RAI television he had closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
“I showed that the time doesn’t matter, it matters how you are, seizing the moment,” he said.
Peaty had swam 58.86 on Saturday, some way off the 57.94 he produced at the British championships in April. He holds the world record of 56.88 set in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2019 plus the Olympic record of 57.13 from Rio 2016.
“I gave it my absolute all,” Peaty told the BBC. “I executed it as well as I could. It’s not about the end goal, it’s about the process.
Peaty started in lane four after powering into the final with the fastest time on Saturday, but he was second at the turn and it came down to a matter of milliseconds and a stroke or a glide at the finish.
“It doesn’t matter what time it says on the scoreboard. I think in my heart I have already won. I’m so happy that I can race against the best in the world and still come joint-second,” he said.
Huske and Walsh secure gold-silver double
Torri Huske reeled in U.S. teammate and world record holder Gretchen Walsh to win the women’s 100 metres butterfly gold by 0.04 of a second on an electric night yesterday.
The 2022 world champion touched out in 55.59 to secure the U.S. team’s first individual swimming gold of the 2024 Games, with Walsh taking silver in 55.63 after leading at the turn on world record pace. China’s Zhang Yufei took the bronze.
The gold was just reward for Huske, who missed out on a butterfly medal in the same event in Tokyo three years ago by a mere 0.01 of a second, and she did it here with a storming finish from third to first in the closing quarter.
“My first 50 felt really good, and then I’ve been working on my second 50 a lot, especially after last year I had kind of a weak finish, and I kind of died in my race, and like last Olympics also, I like lost it all in the last 50,” she said.
“So I really wanted to have a good, strong last 50.”
Huske’s win continued a sequence of the event never having had a repeat winner since it was first held in 1956. Canada’s reigning champion Maggie Mac Neil finished fifth.
Walsh had set an Olympic record of 55.38 in Saturday’s semi-final, a time that would have comfortably won gold on Sunday had she repeated it. She had set the world record at the U.S. trials in Indianapolis last month.
“I think I was definitely nervous before. I feel like there was a lot of pressure on me just having gone the world record and the Olympic record last night,” she said.
“I just wanted to try to execute the race as best as I could and it was definitely a fight to the finish. And seeing the one-two up there though was amazing. I’m so proud of Torri. I’m proud of myself.
“I think that was what America needed and wanted and it was a really special moment that we shared out there on the podium,” said Walsh.
The pair stood on the top step of the podium together for the anthem, with Zhang - who had expressed concern on Saturday about how her rivals saw her after a Chinese doping controversy -joining them afterwards.
Meanwhile Leon Marchand surged to France’s first Olympic swimming gold since 2012 yesterday, obliterating the field to clock the second-fastest 400m individual medley time ever.
The 22-year-old led off strongly and never looked back, touching in 4mins 02.95secs, nearly six seconds clear of Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita in second, with American Carson Foster third.
Marchand was heavy favourite after demolishing Michael Phelps’ 15-year-old world record in a phenomenal 4:02.50 swim last year.
His performance at a raucous La Defense Arena in Paris was a new Olympic record.
With American defending champion Chase Kalisz failing to reach the final and with the packed crowd roaring him on, Marchand was half a body length clear after the opening butterfly leg. But it was a sensational backstroke 100m that left his rivals trailing.