Adam Peaty’s rivals claimed he had shown his cards on his way to a world record in the heats of the 50m breaststroke in Budapest – he proved them all wrong by going even quicker eight hours later in the semi-final.

Crowned champion over 100m breaststroke on Monday, just as he was a year ago at the Olympics in Rio, Peaty was back to cement his status as the biggest male star in the sport.

In the shorter event, his time of 26.10 seconds in the heats left the crowd gasping, and long-time adversary Cameron van der Burgh convinced he had nothing left to give.

Peaty had other ideas however, romping to a scarcely-believable 25.95 in the semi-final – and he’s not done yet.

The 22-year-old said: “There’s no such thing as showing all your cards, everyone has a backhand.

“For me this morning, I said I wasn’t prepared to do a world record, it was just me easing through the stroke and touching the wall and progressing to the semi-final.

“It was the same tonight, I was on such a massive high from this morning and it was so hard to ignore the fact I did a world record in the morning and to try to get myself emotionally ready.

“But I learned from the experience that I’ve had over these last two or three years and came in tonight.

“Honestly I didn’t think I was going to do that, I thought I was going to go slower because I was a little less energetic but tomorrow is the day to do it really because we’ll see what we get.”

Peaty will be going for a fifth world title today but while he managed two world records, there were no medals for Britain in the pool on Tuesday.

That was because 200m freestyle duo Duncan Scott and James Guy couldn’t quite live up to their rankings in the first final of the night, settling for fourth and fifth respectively.

The fastest qualifier in his maiden 200m freestyle final, Scott was a little off the pace early on, finishing in a time of 1:45.26, exactly a tenth slower than in his semi-final.

That would have been good enough for bronze, while Guy was similarly just off his semi-final pace, but despite missing out on the medals, Scott was staying positive.

“Initially I’m disappointed. Even now it’s not a disappointment though, I’ve got to keep my head held high,” said the University of Stirling swimmer.

“It’s a first individual 200m free final and international experience, it’s what I came here to do in the 200.

“Finishing fourth and not doing my best time in the final is pretty gutting but I’m just going to have to move on from that.”

While Scott was competing in his first major individual 200m freestyle final, Kathleen Dawson and Sarah Vasey were even less experienced.

Both at their first major championships, Dawson had qualified for the final of the 100m backstroke, while Vasey went into the 100m breaststroke.

In a race where Gemma Spofforth’s world record fell after eight years – Canadian Kylie Masse taking two hundredths off her time – Dawson could only manage eighth in a time 59.90.

Meanwhile Vasey came home in eighth in one of the most anticipated races of the meet, as American Lilly King broke the world record to beat controversial Russian Yuliya Efimova, who could only finish third.

You can help the next generation of young British swimmers by getting involved in SportsAid Week this September with five-time Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds OBE. Find out more about how you can support the week of fun and fundraising by visiting www.sportsaid.org.uk/sportsaidweek.