In his first taste of the Olympics, world champion Adam Peaty again demonstrated that he is the man for the big occasion by smashing his own 100 metres breaststroke world record in a remarkable time of 57.55 sec.

Astonishingly, that was set in his heats, when people are supposed to save something in the tank for the semi-finals, which were due to take place early today. Everyone knew that Peaty would go out fast, but probably not that fast as he broke his own record, set last year, by 0.37 sec. It could well go down as the greatest ever swim outside of a final.

Assuming nothing untoward happens in the semi-finals, Peaty seems perfectly placed to deliver the first gold medal by a British male swimmer since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988 tomorrow. No one else came anywhere close to him.

Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki was second fastest in the heats in a time of 58.91sec. Effectively everyone else is fighting for second place, including Cameron van der Burgh, the current Olympic champion, who was way back on 59.35sec.

It is incredible to think that Peaty will go much faster in the final on Sunday. Peaty has already made it clear he wants to beat his own world record of 57.92sec set last year.

Speaking earlier this year, Peaty said: “I want to set a target that most people can’t even think of doing.”

Only a brave man would doubt him. No one else has been under 58 seconds and Peaty now owns eight of the 10 fastest times ever in this event. His mother, Caroline, had boarded her first ever flight to be in the stands for the occasion along with his father, Mark, and girlfriend, Anna, but she has made a point of keeping communication to a minimum while he is in his “zone”.