Adam Ramsay-Peaty was comfortably beaten in his favourite event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as he was forced to settle for bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Three-time Olympic champion Ramsay-Peaty, who also holds the world record in the event, was a big favourite to reclaim the Commonwealth title in the same Glasgow pool where his career took off 12 years ago but couldn’t catch either Sam Williamson of Australia or Jersey’s teenage phenom Filip Nowacki in the final metres of the race.
The 31-year-old had cruised through the heats, despite a bizarre delay when an official had to strip to the waist and jump into the pool to fix a lane divider, and then qualified for the final with the fastest time in the semi-finals, in a scene that had become so familiar down the years for the event’s dominant force.
There had been some pre-event talk that 18-year-old Nowacki, who is Great Britain’s next big hope in the discipline and cites Ramsay-Peaty as his hero, could challenge the swimming icon but it turned out he wasn’t the only competitor who would turn the tables in the final.
Ramsay-Peaty received a huge roar from the crowd as he walked out at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre and looked confident in the blocks but failed to stamp his dominance on the race as he used to do at his best.
The favourite was third at the turn as South Africa’s Michael Houlie flew down the first 50 metres and Williamson also touched ahead of him.
Houlie faded in the second half of the race but Nowacki came on strong to overhaul Ramsay-Peaty and he also had Australian rival Williamson out in front. The Englishman tried to fight back in the final ten metres but didn’t have enough left in the tank to haul in either of the men ahead of him.
Williamson touched first in 59.17s, more than two seconds slower than Ramsay-Peaty’s world record time of 56.88s set back in 2019, to take the gold medal as Nowacki won silver, 0.17s behind in a time of 59.34s to claim Jersey’s first Commonwealth medal since 1990.
Ramsay-Peaty’s time of 59.65s was 0.48s behind the winner, while Houlie faded to finish seventh.
“That was a great race, and it’s always a privilege racing against Adam,” said Nowacki after the race. “Some of the Aussies, it’s my first time walking away with the silver there and Jersey’s first medal in quite a long time.”
Three-time Olympic champion Ramsay-Peaty, with a 4x100m mixed medley gold in addition to his two individual Olympic crowns, was competing in his fourth Commonwealth Games, having clinched his first medals as a 19-year-old in Glasgow in 2014.
He married Holly Ramsay, daughter of celebrity chef Gordon, in December last year, and has seen his personal life become the subject of gossip columns after experiencing a rift with the majority of his family, while he also competed on Strictly Come Dancing back in 2021.
He had described these Games as a “full circle moment”, looking to reignite his career, having won silver at the Paris Olympics in 2024 to bounce back after a difficult 2023 in which he withdrew from a series of events in order to focus on mental health concerns.
