It's Peaty. Adam Peaty.

Heats and Greets

The whistle sounded from somewhere on my right and my nerves started racing. This was one of the most important races in my life and I was determined to win my heat and get into the final of the women's 400m free at the British Summer Championships. I needed to prove to myself and to my coaches at City Of Sheffield Swimming Club that I could achieve my dream of the World Championships.

Stepping up onto the starting blocks, I felt a rush of adrenaline, and I knew that my game face had returned. This was my city and no one was going to beat me on my home turf. I crouched into my starting position and waited for the cue to start. It seemed to take forever, but as soon as the sound reached my ears I propelled myself forwards into the water and started to swim for my life.

Many of the people in my heat were slower than me, which was bad as I had no real competition or anyone to push myself against. Still, this was about getting a good time, preferably a personal best, and a good lane in the final. I swam as fast I could possibly go and after 8 laps of the 50m pool, I finally touched the wall and started to relax. I had won my heat by what looked about a few seconds and was waiting upon conformation of my time. The board suddenly lit up and next to my name was 4:01:56.

Feeling a smile creep onto my face, I looked up to the stands to see if I could see my mum, dad and sister, Sofia but instead I locked eyes with a boy with sandy coloured hair. He looked about the same age as me and was watching intently, with shock upon his face. I didn't realise I had zoned out until I felt the splash of the next swimmers, giving me my signal to get out of the pool.

After retrieving my things, I looked up towards the stands again, but this time the boy was gone. I felt my heart sink a little bit, but I immediately brushed it off as I was here to swim, not to be distracted. Shaking my head slightly at my stupidity I made my way to my coaches and teammates who were congratulating me on my good swim. Picking up my phone I saw I had a text from Sofia saying "Well done Rhe! So proud of you 😘 xx" I was extremely close to my older sister as we were only a year apart and practically looked like twins, with our same long, brown, wavy locks and stormy grey eyes. It was 12:30 and I had free time until 3:30 when I had to be back for warm up, so I decided to head up to see mum and dad. I was just scrolling through Instagram when I collided with something hard and fell to the floor. I winced at the pain and a hand latched itself onto mine and pulled me up. It was the boy from the stands.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, worry laced in his deep voice.
"Yeah I am, sorry I wasn't watching where I was going," I replied, glancing down at my feet, my cheeks turning red.
"Don't worry about it, I thought I'd hurt you that's all. Hey, aren't you Rhea Holden?" He asked, shooting me a puzzled glance.
"Yeah I am, why?" Now it was my turn to be puzzled.
"No reason, I just watched you race that's all. You were really good!"
"Thank you, that's really kind of you." I was trying to make a good impression on this boy even though I knew nothing about him.
"You never know, you might even break the record if you carry on like this." His words were comforting and actually quite encouraging if Im being honest.
"Gosh, I hope so," I replied smiling. "Sorry I didn't catch your name?"
"It's Peaty. Adam Peaty," he said before smiling. "Got to go now but I'll catch you later," he shouted as he walked away.
"Yeah, see you," I whispered as I watched him walk to the City of Derby squad.

I seemed to make my way to my parents, although I can't remember the journey here, I was too fixated on Adam Peaty and that was all I needed going into a national final.
"Rhe! We are so proud of you," my parents exclaimed, sandwiching me in a hug between them both.
"Cheers guys," I said smiling.
"Lets go grab a bite to eat and then you can focus on your race after that," mum said, leading us out of Ponds Forge and into Sheffield.
She was right. I did need to focus on my race and being distracted by boys was not going to get me that record time. So I put Adam Peaty to the back of my mind and would not think about him again until my final was over.