• Peaty improves his own record time with 57.55sec • 21-year-old a big favourite for Sunday’s final • Miley misses out as Peaty goes into final

The last time any British man won an Olympic swimming gold was in 1988. It is a sobering fact worth contemplating for a second. Margaret Thatcher was still in power, Sandy Lyle was winning the US Masters and Paul Gascoigne had just become the country’s first £2m footballer. Little did Adrian Moorhouse imagine there would still be clear water between him and his compatriots 28 years later. But Adam Peaty is a different story – here, making his Olympic bow, he broke his own 100m breaststroke world record in the heats and must now be considered the overwhelming favourite to win gold in Sunday’s final.

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No wonder GB swimming’s performance director, Chris Spice, before the first day of competition in Rio’s aquatics centre, cheerfully drew comparisons with another sport accustomed to long years of hurt. “It’s a bit like the 1966 England football team,” suggested the Australian. At long last, however, there is every reason to suspect the lead weight of history is about to be lifted.

With his GB team-mate Ross Murdoch in the next lane Peaty powered out of the blocks and looked every inch a champion in waiting as he dominated the rest of the field to storm into the semi-finals in a time of 57.55sec, nicely inside his former best of 57.92 set in April last year and more than a second quicker than his nearest pursuer in the competition.

The 21-year-old from Uttoxeter, a member of the City of Derby club, really should be mounting a podium in Sunday night’s’s final and, judging by his relaxed demeanour, sounds in the mood to go quicker again.

“I went out pretty fast, quite easy, came back and I heard everyone cheering,” he reported. “I thought: ‘What are they cheering for, there’s no Brazilians in this lane?’”

Such is the inner confidence of the athlete clearly at the top of his game. Peaty is already a world, Commonwealth and European champion and could be on course to leave all kinds of former greats – Moorhouse, Duncan Goodhew, David Wilkie – in his wake. It is always an encouraging sign when someone like Spice, who has worked across a variety of sports in his time, including a stint at the Rugby Football Union, sees absolutely no reason why Peaty cannot seal the deal this weekend.

“Adam is not fazed by the arena and that’s one of the reasons why the GB team is in a totally different place to where we were four years ago,” stressed Spice. “He’ll be expecting to do the business.”

To reach that state of heightened expectation takes time and a whole lot of effort from plenty of other people, from his parents to his coaches and beyond. Part of Spice’s modus operandi has been to make individuals feel part of a more collegiate set-up and, where necessary, to toughen them up as well. The loss of some of his team’s kit in the build-up to the Games was unfortunate but not unforeseen.

“The reality is that things will go missing,” emphasised Spice. “But it’s not about that, it’s about how you react to it. We’ve been building that kind of resilience in the team for the last three years. I’m pretty confident that whatever happens we’re in a pretty good place to deal with it. The team around the team is good and everyone’s in good shape.”

That breeziest of catch-all phrases – “whatever happens” – includes some opponents unexpectedly recording times that, under normal circumstances, should not be happening. As Spice concedes the most fancied swimmers do not always win gold, even if Peaty does now look odds on to do so.

“Olympic year is always a bit strange. Some people swim faster than they ever have. Our challenge is not to put too much emphasis on anyone else and ensure we maximise our performance. If we can get in there and swim personal bests the medals are going to come.”

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There was also a personal best performance by Max Litchfield, who qualified fifth fastest for the final of the 400m individual medley overnight. The 21-year-old from Sheffield finished a creditable second in his heat behind the gold medal favourite, Kosuke Hagino, of Japan.

Hannah Miley and Aimee Willmott also qualified for the final of the women’s individual medley, with James Guy edging into the 400m freestyle final after finishing a modest fifth in his heat and sixth-fastest overall.

The venue was by no means full for the first session but that is likely to change when the medal-winning races commence.

Regardless of whatever else happens at these Games, however, there is no question the mood in GB swimming has changed for the better. “I think that’s a testament to the young guys coming through but you’ve also got a young batch of coaches who have been superb in the last three years,” said Spice. “Together that’s made a pretty exciting team.”

It has certainly started well and looks set to get even better, just as Peaty’s barber suggested it would: “I was pretty nervous about Olympic qualification until I was chatting to my barber one day and he said: ‘You’re a world record holder. What are you worrying about?’”

The new rocket-propelled hero of British swimming will not have to pay for his next haircut – nor his drinks – in his home town if he keeps on going at this rate.