Ben Proud hails Adam Peaty after both win World Championships gold

Olympic champion Adam Peaty claimed an expected title before proving the inspiration for Great Britain team-mate Ben Proud to secure a surprise gold medal at the World Championships in Budapest on Monday night.

Peaty bettered his own championship record to finish in 57.47 seconds, but his own world record of 57.13secs set last August in winning Olympic gold in Rio was beyond him.

And moments after Peaty had received his second successive 100m breaststroke world title Proud won the 50m butterfly.

Proud had qualified fourth fastest, but built on a superb start to touch the wall first in 22.75.

Peaty was 1.32 seconds clear of the field and was happy with his performance after a first length which was 0.11secs under world record pace.

"The way I swam it is very encouraging for me for the future," Peaty said.

Proud and Peaty are both aged 22 and both won gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It has taken the Plymouth swimmer a little longer to take a global title, in his third World Championships, but he paid tribute to trailblazer Peaty.

"He has really taken Britain a step forwards," Proud said. "It's made it easier for that next person to go up and win gold.

"We saw it two years ago with James Guy. Britain's a force to be reckoned with right now."

Guy won the 200m freestyle title in Kazan, Russia in 2015 and qualified second fastest in defence of his title. Fastest was his team-mate Duncan Scott.

Peaty won Britain's first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, 1.5secs ahead of his nearest rival.