Adam Peaty units up Olympic 100m breaststroke showdown with Qin Haiyang

Two races, two wins and one more to go for a place in history. All that separates Adam Peaty from sealing a third Olympic 100m breaststroke title is a man at the heart of an almighty doping crisis.

If the hope was that Team GB’s golden fish would face Qin Haiyang in either the heats or the semi-finals yesterday then any disappointment ought to make way for fascination because it will instead come on the heightened stage of today’s final.

That Peaty qualified fastest in the field for the showdown will play to parochial appetites. 

So too will the extra effort Qin seemed to expend in getting there. But if we are to go by the semi-final timings, then they are separated by a hair — Peaty went through in 58.86sec, Qin in 58.93.

Again, we might point to Peaty’s extra comfort, both in the heats and then the evening semi-final, but naturally the sport is only half the story here, because as ever with the Olympics, context is key. 

Team GB’s Adam Peaty (pictured) faces off Sunday in the 100m breaststroke final at the Paris Olympics against Qin Haiyang who has been embroiled in the Chinese doping controversy

Peaty qualified for the final in 58.86 seconds, while Qin qualified milliseconds slower in 58.93

Qin (pictured) was one of the 23 Chinese swimmers who failed drugs tests ahead of the Tokyo Olympics

Peaty’s is quite simple. If he wins tonight, he would become only the second man to win the same swimming event at three straight Games. Given his battles with depression, not to the mention the onerous task of draining the well year on year when every trophy, pot and pan has already been won, that would be a spectacular feat.

The scenario around Qin is far more complicated, as we know. As one of 23 Chinese swimmers who failed drugs tests ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, and the murky way in which that information was concealed until April of this year, there has been outrage that he is here. 

For his part, Qin has spoken of conspiratorial plots against the Chinese to see them tested far more than anyone else, which has hardly endeared him.

What has never been doubted is his talent — having won three gold medals at the world championships last year, he is an immense threat to Peaty, but to see him finish third in his heat and then tie up in the second half of his semi-final is to see the Brit as favourite.

Certainly, Peaty will not lack for confidence. For all his tribulations, he rarely takes any doubts on to this stage. His stage. For his semi-final, that was shown by a strut to his blocks, a prolonged stare from lane four to the man to his left, Nicolo Martinenghi, and a flexing of those muscles.

Peaty is seen as favourite with Qin (pictured) having only just qualified in his heat and tied up in his semi

Peaty (pictured) has battled and overcome depression during his career and is looking to win his third Olympic 100m breaststroke title on Sunday in the pool at the Paris La Defense Arena 

At the gun, he was off fast, led by 40m, turned in 26.90sec, and was able to slow up on the stretch before claiming the win in 58.86sec.

It was almost half a second quicker than his winning heat, and yet a fraction under two seconds short of his world record.

Earlier in the day, he had laid down a marker of sorts by winning a close heat in 59.18sec, the second quickest among the 16 to progress to the semi-finals, and ahead of James Wilby in his wake. Wilby could only finish fifth in the semi-final that night and failed to advance.

As for Qin, he had led his morning heat at halfway but was passed by Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands and Germany’s Melvin Imoudu after the turn.

Qualifying only ninth quickest in 59.58sec had the ring of an energy-saving run from the Chinese athlete, whose personal best, while substantially slower than Peaty’s world record from 2021 of 56.88sec, is 57.69sec.

To see him lose his heat was a little jolting, but tardy times across the board also caught the eye.

29-year-old Peaty faces a strong rival in Qin who won three world championship golds last year

‘The whole field was a bit slow, in a sense,’ Peaty had said in the morning. A plausible theory being advanced in Paris centred on the use of a ‘slow pool’ at La Defense Arena, whereby its depth of 2.15m is approximately 80cm shallower than its equivalent at the Tokyo Olympics. Deeper pools generate fewer waves, which in turns means less drag on the swimmers.

Meanwhile, Team GB’s Keanna Macinnes, the European under 23 champion, finished last in her 100m butterfly semi-final. Zhang Yufei, part of the cohort of Chinese swimmers who failed a test prior to the Tokyo Olympics, was second in the other semi-final.

In what was billed the race of the night, Australia’s Ariarne Titmus defended her 400m freestyle title by edging 17-year-old Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh to the wall. Katie Ledecky of the United States claimed her 11th Olympic medal by touching for bronze.