The Japan Times - Ramsay-Peaty hatches 'battle plan' to bounce back from Commonwealth Games tears

The 31-year-old fell short in what has been his strongest event during the course of his career on Saturday as he was beaten into third place by Australia's Sam Williamson and British rising star Filip Nowacki, who claimed Jersey's first Commonwealth medal for 36 years.

A three-time Olympic gold medallist, Ramsay-Peaty has not won a major event since the 50m breaststroke at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

But he did bounce back from time off due to mental health issues to win silver in the 100m breaststroke at the Paris Olympics two years ago.

Since then he has also had to deal with a high-profile family rift following his marriage to Holly Ramsay, daughter of the celebrity chef Gordon, in December.

Ramsay-Peaty was reduced to tears on Saturday evening but is aiming to fight back and become the first English swimmer to win gold at four different Commonwealth Games.

He qualified third fastest from Sunday's semi-finals behind Nicholson and South Africa's Michael Houlie.

"I think the last 24 hours have been a bit of a whirlwind," he said.

"In sport, it's not really about when you get beat down because it's going to be inevitable that you do do that and you make mistakes.

"It's actually how long it takes you to look at it, respect it, and turn it around for tonight, and I'm really happy with that. I've got a great trajectory for tomorrow."

Ramsay-Peaty revealed he had sketched out a "battle plan" in the wake of his disappointment in Glasgow after consulting his wife, friends and teammates.

"For me, the best way to ever get anything out of my head, when it is going 100 miles an hour, is just write it out. And I write down what's going wrong, what's going right, what can I change, what can't I change. So then I've got a battle plan.

"Even now I'm thinking, what's part of that battle plan, and how can we look at that final tomorrow? What's the best way to go in tomorrow?"

Ramsay-Peaty also believes his lack of major competition preparation since the Olympics two years ago hindered him earlier in the meet.

He has already raced five times over the opening three days of competition.

"People forget that I haven't done this for two years, and even I forget that," he said.

"I have to go through heats and these finals, it's quite difficult when you're not used to it, which I'm not. Even thought in my whole career I've been used to it. So I think that's it."

S.Suzuki--JT