Adam Peaty eased to victory in the men’s 100m breaststroke final to clinch Team England’s fifth gold of the day, with James Wilby storming past South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh at the death to secure a one-two finish by one hundredth of a second. 

After a dominant performance in qualifying for this event, Peaty suggested he had only been performing at 80%, and it certainly looked like he had more in the tank today as he led from the outset and throughout, finishing with a final time of 58.84. 

Wilby’s silver medal comes on the back of his astonishing gold medal-winning race in Day 1 in the men’s 200m breaststroke, where he emerged from the middle of the pack to snag the win from an unsuspecting opponent, similar to his performance in the 100m. 

Team England’s one-two sees the theme of dominance in the water continue, with Peaty and Wilby picking up England’s tenth and eleventh medals in the pool at the Gold Coast. 

Peaty, from Uttoxeter, said: “This is a little different, even though it’s a gold medal and it’s four years undefeated and that’s kind of completed the circle, I’m not happy with that performance because it wasn’t the best version of me and I just want to go out there and try to do the better version. 

“No one in Europe is better than me so I know I can win this one, once rested I can go out and do anything. It’s been a big learning curve here, my strokes feel nowhere near what it should feel like and I think we need to go back to the drawing board now to see what’s what in September to December and how to improve that from April to July to August. It was the first time I felt not in control of my race and I think I let the event got to me too much and I was thinking about the end results instead of the process.

 “There is a bit of pressure I put on myself, expectation more like. When in the heat, I didn’t feel the crowd, I didn’t feel like I was swimming with the crowd in a sense, it might seem strange to you but when I come out as a world champion or Olympics I think ‘Yes. This is what I’m here for’ but maybe because it’s April, I haven’t trained my mind for this kind of event so big learning curve for us, if I compete in April in the future we know what to do now.

"I think for me I just try and focus on trying to go out there, and tonight was all about defending the title, completing the quad, four years undefeated and I couldn't have asked for more except for maybe the expectation I put on myself."