Adam Peaty finishes fifth in European 100m breaststroke final

British swimmer Adam Peaty finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke final at the European Swimming Championships in Paris, marking his first defeat in the competition. The 31-year-old, who had previously won 16 European Championship gold medals, had never before been beaten in a heat, semi-final, or final at the event. Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi won the race in 58.58 seconds, followed by silver medallist Ivan Kozhakin and Italy's Simone Cerasuolo in third. Peaty clocked 59.10 seconds, finishing just one-hundredth of a second and one place ahead of British teammate Philip Novakki. Peaty, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and world record holder in the 100m breaststroke, had previously remarked that "nothing makes sense" following a disappointing performance at last month's Commonwealth Games, where he took two bronze medals. His time in Paris was 0.55 seconds faster than his performance at the Commonwealth Games, where 18-year-old Novakki defeated him and made history for Jersey by winning the 200m breaststroke in Glasgow. In other results, Great Britain's Katie Shanahan won the 200m backstroke final decisively with a time of two minutes and 6.13 seconds, finishing 1.49 seconds ahead of the field. The 22-year-old had previously won silver in the same event at the 2022 European Championships in Rome. Additionally, fellow British swimmer Angharad Evans set a new championship record in the women's 100m breaststroke semi-finals, completing the distance in one minute and 4.97 seconds.