Brilliant Peaty takes his global gold medal tally to three

Adam Peaty won his second and third gold medals of the FINA Aquatics World Championships in Russia during another successful day for Great Britain in the swimming pool.

Peaty won his second gold of the championships in Kazan with victory in the 50m breaststroke final in a time of 26.51 seconds.

The City of Derby swimmer, who had set a new world record in advancing to final, then returned to the pool with Fran Halsall, Chris Walker-Hebborn and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor to win the mixed 4x100m medley in a world-record time of three minutes and 41.71secs.

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Peaty finished strongly to touch first ahead of second-placed Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa (26.66s) and third-placed American Kevin Cordes (26.86) in the 50m breaststroke final.

It was Britain’s third gold in the swimming pool after Peaty won the 100m title on Monday night and James Guy won the men’s 200m freestyle on Tuesday, but a fourth was not long in coming from Peaty, Halsall, Walker-Hebborn and O’Connor.

“We fought for every inch there, as you can tell we've got nothing left,” Peaty said shortly after Britain’s medley triumph.

“We left it all on the battlefield really and I’m just grateful to have a team like this and we can show the world that we’re good enough to do that. I give 100 per cent in training, 100 per cent in racing and I'm enjoying it.”

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Peaty's feat is all the more remarkable given that he was scared of water as a child – as his mother, Caroline, revealed.

“Adam wouldn’t sit down in the bath or stand under the shower. He just used to scream,” she said.

“My friend then took him to go swimming as I couldn’t because it would break my heart as he would just scream. But after a week he got used to it.”

Elsewhere Dan Wallace qualified fourth fastest for today's men's 200m individual medley final in a time of one minute 57.77secs, but Roberto Pavoni could not join him after finishing joint eighth and losing a subsequent swim-off with American Conor Dwyer. Stephen Milne could not add to Britain's medal haul, which currently stands at seven – four gold, one silver and two bronze – after he came home seventh in the men’s 800m freestyle final in a time of 7:49.86 – some 9.9secs behind winner Sun Yang of China.

Lauren Quigley reached the women’s 50m backstroke final with a seventh-placed semi-final finish in 27.88secs.

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