Adam Peaty won Great Britain's first medal of the 2022 Short Course World Swimming Championships in Melbourne with a bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke final.
The three-time Olympic champion posted a time of 56.25 seconds to clinch the final spot on the podium behind Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi and American champion Nic Fink.
Peaty has won eight gold medals at the Long Course World Championships, but he has never taken a title at the Short Course competition, also winning three silvers in 2014.
Speaking to Team GB after the race, Peaty - who has been plagued by a foot injury - admitted that finishing third was a strange feeling, and he was left "angry" after taking home the bronze medal.
"I'm back and I'm hungry. I hated it during Covid with no crowds and that's part of why I went dancing!" the 27-year-old said. "I'm angry with bronze. I don't have many of them, but that's a good sign, because it feels like my first race since Tokyo and it's just the start.
"I don't get bronze often, so it's a bit of a weird one on the Wikipedia. It's my first competition since the Olympics, the Commonwealths was just a trial really, after my foot (injury).
"I'm disappointed but I'm not going to allow myself to be. I've put myself in a really hard block, it is what it is, I am what I am.
"I'm looking forward to a long course season after this week and I've got to be uncomfortable, I've got to be challenged, if I'm going to challenge that world record. This is the fight I need and I just feel pure anger, which is when I feel very dangerous."
Peaty will also compete in the men's 50m breaststroke event and was one of a number of British swimmers to take to the pool on Thursday, as Tom Dean placed eighth in the men's 100m freestyle.
Dean touched the wall with 46.11 on the clock as Kyle Chalmers took gold in front of the home crowd with 45.16, setting a new Championship record in the process.
The women's 4x50m freestyle relay race saw Imogen Clark, Isabelle Hindley, Abbie Wood and Anna Hopkin place sixth with a time of 1:37.11, as the USA took the world title with a Championship record of 1:33.89.
Elsewhere on Thursday, the men's 400m freestyle crown went to the USA's Kieran Smith - the current Olympic bronze medallist - in 3:34.38, and compatriot Lilly King took the title in the women's 100m breaststroke in 1:02.67.
South Africa's Chad le Clos set a new continental record with 1:48.27 on his way to his 11th Short Course World Championships gold medal in the men's 200m butterfly, while the women's race in the same event was won by Dakota Luther with 2:03.37 on the clock.
Australia's Emma McKeon won her second gold medal of the 2022 event after setting a new Championship record of 50.77 in the women's 100m freestyle, and the hosting nation also scooped the world title in the men's 4x50m freestyle relay ahead of Italy and the Netherlands. body check tags ::
