Nicolo Martinenghi can surely point to times in his career when he and the Midas Touch weren't operating on the same frequency, but Paris is the place that changes all that.

Just 0.02sec ahead of Adam Peaty to block the Brit's Olympic triple dream in 2024, the 27-year-old managed to get his hand to the wall first once more in the French capital today, this time by 0.1sec.

Victory in 58.58 ahead of Ivan Kozhakin, and a teammate granting Italy a 1-2 punch at the podium, Simone Cerasuolo, came to a man who found the right balance between his there and his back.

Notably, since 2021, the 27-year-old champion from Varese has never missed the podium in the 100m breaststroke across the eight major long-course competitions he has contested. His pantheon includes two Olympic medals, four World Championship medals, and two European Championship medals, with at least one victory at each of those levels.

Today, the gold and spoils went to anyone who could get under 59 this evening. Four others in the final, placed 5th to 8th, had all been inside the mark before, some of them even at these championships. But not in the showdown today.

Victory ment the return of a title Martinenghi - the Italian record-holder on 58.26 and coached by Federica Pellgerini's partner Matteo Giunta at the Verona Federal Performance Centre - last claimed in 2022 - and then lost when absent in circumstance two years ago dictated by decision-makers who insisted the show must go on.

In an Olympic year that included the World titles for the first time in Games season, a large shoal of the best swimmers simply said no to the European and/or the World events in favour of focussing on their ultimate goal: the Olympics.

The 2024 defender who did travel to Doha for the intercalated warm-up, Melvin Imoudu finished fourth, the greatest sprint breaststroke ace in history, now Ramsay-Peaty, fifth 0.01sec ahead of Britain teammate Filip Nowacki, that 0.01 at the end the one;y moment in the race when the two were separated on the clock. Then came Jack Kelly, of Ireland and based in the US, his big leaps forward in the rounds and membership of the sub-59 club challenged by big-occasion nerves. Olympic 200m medallist Caspar Corbeau, of The Netherlands, closed the final 0.9sec shy of gold:

Said Martinenghi:

"I have no words. I deserve this; I deserve it so much. Today was a race driven by heart, determination, and a desire for redemption. Today I tried to give everything I had; I didn't care how I got there - I just wanted to give it my all with no regrets. Today I felt like the strongest one out there, like I had an edge over the others. I needed to win for myself, and that was it."

He added:

"I was talking to my teammates, saying that in my opinion, there was a one-in-twenty chance of me bringing home the gold, but I was going to fight for it to the very end - and if I succeeded, I’d probably quit swimming. That probably won't be the case, though. I want to thank everyone who was in the water with me today, starting with my staff. It’s been - I repeat - an incredibly difficult year. I actually got a bit emotional earlier; that didn't even happen to me at the Olympics, because the past year was much harder than the Olympic year.

I never cease to be amazed every time I get in the water; I don't know, I just feel better and better. This is my world; it’s still what I want to do for a while, still who I’ll be for a while, and you won't get rid of me that easily. I won't deny there were low moments when I thought swimming had taken a back seat; not because I wanted it to, but because I felt circumstances forced it. But then, when you realize you have the heart to fight, you aren't afraid anymore."

Cerasuolo, who risked a very fast opening 50 and may have paid a price but also got rewarded with a medal that five others did not get, said:

"Yesterday I was furious about how the semi- final had gone. Today I was truly ready for anything; I would have gone to war just to make it onto that podium. Today I felt good, with the feeling that I didn't need to be afraid of anyone. Nicolò is an example to us all; he inspires us with his fighting spirit. And those final 10m were, in fact, pure heart. It was an extraordinary feat for Tete (Nicolo's nickname)."

That feat: with his 2002 win, he became the second Italian after Domenico Fioravanti (Istanbul 1999 and Helsinki 2000) to triumph twice in the 100m breaststroke.

No blaming the shallow 2m Olympic pool of 2024 for the relative slowness of an event that saw its first sub 58 11 years ago and its first sub-57 seven years ago, courtesy of Peaty.

So what gives, is this the new norm for Peaty? Read his answer below, with the our archive history file updates and the impact of Paris 2026 at the end for newsletter readers and subscribers.