England's James Wilby produced a stunning late surge to take the gold medal in the men's 100m breaststroke at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, but defending champion Adam Peaty finished outside the medals in fourth.
Wilby - who won the 200m breaststroke gold on the Gold Coast four years ago - edged his way past defending champion Peaty to finish with 59.25 seconds on the clock.
It was then silver and bronze for Australia through Zac Stubblety-Cook (59.52) and Sam Williamson (59.82), as Peaty - who led up to and beyond the halfway point - settled for fourth place.
Peaty's participation at the Birmingham Games was initially in doubt due to a broken foot which forced him to miss the World Championships, and he admitted after the 100m that the 2022 Commonwealths would probably be his last.
"I know this is probably my last Commonwealth Games so it's great. Wilby had a great race. I was a lot slower than yesterday, it was just a bad race," Peaty told BBC Sport.
"When it comes down to the race sometimes it doesn't go to plan. I was hurting from the 50m but you know that's a lack of training, lack of racing... it is what it is.
"I can't overthink it. I'm a fighter and sometimes you have got to have these moments to keep fighting. Always learning. This is a huge moment for me really because I'm at a part in my career where you choose to go on or keep at it or whatever."
© Reuters
When asked if he still planned to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Peaty responded: "Yeah of course. The next two years are going to be huge - how we attack that now, I don't know. Because I haven't done two winter blocks in a long time so it's back to the drawing board and back to training."
An overjoyed Wilby added: "I love racing and racing alongside him [Peaty] is always so much fun. Tonight, I was able to execute my race the best I could.
"At the end of the day we're both incredible racers, we all know what Adam is capable of. We'll both be back to race again and race each other and It's always going to be an exciting one. But that one was really fun."
Wilby was not the only gold medallist for England in Sunday's late swimming session, as the women's 100m backstroke S8 title went to Alice Tai with a time of 1:13.64.
There was also a bronze medal for James Guy in the men's 200m butterfly final, while Wales' Medi Harris also finished on the third podium spot in the women's 100m backstroke.
In the final race of the day, England's women finished third behind Canada and world-record breakers Australia in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Ben Knapton
