Peaty and Wilby set up European showdown

Adam Peaty and James Wilby set up a 100m Breaststroke showdown after impressing to reaching the European final in Glasgow.

Having set a Championship record in the heats, Peaty lead the way again in the semis, winning his race in 58.04 to book lane four for tomorrow’s final.

But Wilby, who touched one place behind English teammate Peaty in the 100m Breaststroke at this year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, was second fastest through.

Wilby won his heat in 59.23 to progress, and set up the prospect of an English one-two tomorrow night.

“Tomorrow I’ll bring my ‘A game’ and I’ve got a few more steps to make,” said Peaty, who is aiming to win the European 100m Breaststroke title for the third straight Championships.

“It was a bit of a chore turning it round so quickly today from the heats but I’m happy with that.”

Wilby, who lifted Commonwealth gold over 200m Breaststroke earlier this year, also admitted he was looking forward to swimming fresh again in the final.

“I’m still carrying a bit of fatigue from this morning because it was such a great race,” said Wilby, who set a PB 59.12 in the heats.

“But I’m pretty happy with that and I would’ve been happy even if I hadn’t been slightly slower than this morning.

“Hopefully that’s put me in a good place for the final.”

Willmott and women’s relay narrowly miss podium

Aimee Willmott was the first English swimmer in finals action in Glasgow, narrowly missing out on a medal in the 400m Individual Medley.

The Commonwealth champion clocked 4:35.77 in the final, touching just 0.43 seconds behind British teammate Hannah Miley, who took bronze.

“If I’m honest, I’d like to have gone faster than that,” said Willmott. “It’s always a completely different race when you’re swimming against more people at elite level.

“At the Commonwealth Games, Hannah [Miley] and I are ahead of the rest of the field so there’s not a lot of pressure from everyone around us.

“The tactics I implemented were what I’ve been working on. I can only do as well as I can.”

There was also a near miss in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay as an all-English quarter finished fourth in the women’s event.

The team of Anna Hopkin (54.94), Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (54.15), Ellie Faulkner (54.95) and Freya Anderson (53.22) came home in 3:37.26, trailing third placed Denmark by just 0.23 seconds.

Nick Pyle lowers British age group record

Newcastle Swim Team’s Nick Pyle was the only other English swimmer in action on the first finals session of the Championships.

The teenager lowered his own British and English 17 Yrs age group record to finish 12th in the 50m Backstroke heats.

Pyle finished seventh in his heat, touching in 25.10 to break his own marker of 25.33 from this year’s European Junior Championships in Helsinki.

• Head to MicroPlus Timing to view full results from Glasgow.