Adam Peaty struck the first mini psychological blow in his expected Olympic head-to-head with the Chinese swimmer Qin Haiyang, who has claimed that increased anti-doping tests prove that “European and American teams” feel threatened by the Chinese swimming squad.
Peaty won the fourth of five heats on Saturday morning in the men’s 100-metre breaststroke in 59.18 seconds, slightly faster than Qin’s 59.58sec, although they were both behind the Dutchman Caspar Corbeau, who qualified fastest in 59.04.
Qin has established himself as the world’s dominant breaststroker in Peaty’s absence from major competition through much of the past two years but the heats suggested that Sunday’s final could be a very open race. Fifteen of the qualifiers – including also Team GB’s James Wilby – finished within a second of each other.
Peaty had laid down a marker in Olympic and World Championships heats previously – he even broke the world record before winning the Rio 2016 event – but is a more calculated swimmer now and has talked in the build-up of making sure that he saves his best for Sunday’s final.
He will probably need to show rather more, however, in Saturday night’s semi-final to ensure no issues in lining up for that final in one of the middle lanes for the fastest qualifiers.
The swimming in Paris has been overshadowed during the build-up after the revelation that a group of 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trace amounts of the banned substance trimetazidine prior to the Tokyo Olympics. Their test results were never publicly disclosed and the athletes were not sanctioned after China’s anti-doping authority attributed the findings to contamination.
This explanation was accepted by World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency but the revelations have caused serious disquiet within both the sport and the wider anti-doping community. “Why not release this information at the time? Who benefits from the lack of transparency and secrecy? So disappointing from WADA,” wrote Peaty when that news broke in April.
Qin, who holds the record for the men’s 200m breaststroke, has suggested on social media that the vigorous testing of Chinese athletes at the Paris Games was an attempt to disturb their rhythm. It has been claimed that China’s swimmers had been tested on average five to seven times each in their first 10 days in France, and at all times of day and night.
“This proves that the European and American teams feel threatened by the performances of the Chinese team in recent years,” said Qin.
“Some tricks aim to disrupt our preparation rhythm and destroy our psychological defence. But we are not afraid.
“When you have a clear conscience, you do not fear slander. The team is currently preparing at the established pace. My team-mates and I will resist the pressure and win more medals to silence the sceptics.”
On July 15, China’s national team nutritionist Yu Liang wrote on social media that “each athlete has been tested 5-7 times on average”. The post has since been deleted.
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