Ramsay-Peaty suffers first European defeat as Martinenghi takes 100m breaststroke crown in Paris
Nicolo Martinenghi won the men's 100m breaststroke final at the 2026 European Aquatics Championships in Paris, ending Adam Ramsay-Peaty's unbeaten record at the event.
Martinenghi touched in 58.58 seconds. Ivan Kozhakin took silver and Simone Cerasuolo bronze. Ramsay-Peaty finished fifth in 59.10 — 0.52 seconds off the Italian winner and, critically, his first-ever loss at a European Aquatics Championships. BBC Sport
For a swimmer who owns the 100m breaststroke world record of 56.88 seconds, set when he won Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro in 57.13, fifth place in Paris is a jolt. The 31-year-old has collected 16 European Championship gold medals across a career that has redefined the stroke. He is also a three-time Olympic champion. BBC Sport; SwimSwam
The margin between comfort and crisis can be razor-thin. Ramsay-Peaty finished 0.01 seconds ahead of his Great Britain team-mate Filip Nowacki, an 18-year-old who has already beaten him before — at the Commonwealth Games, where Nowacki also won 200m breaststroke gold and made history for Jersey. BBC Sport
That Commonwealth Games meet was where Ramsay-Peaty said "nothing makes sense" after two bronze medals he could not make peace with. His 59.10 in Paris was 0.55 seconds faster than his time there, so the trajectory is upward. It just was not fast enough on a night when Martinenghi — joint second-fastest in the heats at 59.11 — found another gear. BBC Sport; European Aquatics
Ramsay-Peaty had already swum earlier in the session, posting a 58.9-second breaststroke split in Great Britain's mixed 4x100m medley relay final. The team finished fourth. BBC Sport
There were brighter results elsewhere for Britain. Katie Shanahan, 22, won the women's 200m backstroke gold by a commanding 1.49 seconds in 2:06.13 — an upgrade on the silver she took at the 2022 European Championships in Rome. Angharad Evans, 23, set a championship record of 1:04.97 in the women's 100m breaststroke semi-final. BBC Sport
In the men's 400m individual medley — a gruelling race combining all four strokes — Ilia Borodin won with a championship record of 4:08.17. Alberto Razzetti was second in 4:10.40 and Britain's Max Litchfield third in 4:11.58. Olympics.com
What lingers from this session is the image of Ramsay-Peaty looking up at a scoreboard that did not show his name near the top. A junior record, a coach always said, is a promise — not a career. The same logic works in reverse: a single fifth place at 31 is a bad night, not an ending. The question is whether the 0.55-second improvement from the Commonwealth Games is the start of a climb back toward 56.88, or a swimmer running out of road.
For now, Paris belongs to Martinenghi.
