Scotland’s golden boy of the pool

Triple title success for swimmer Duncan

A Troon- based swimmer has scooped three gold medals at the European Championships.

Duncan Scott, who has trained out of Troon’s pool since he was just six, defied a difficult lane draw to claim an improbable 200 metres freestyle gold medal at the Games in Glasgow.

Qualifying only eighth fastest, the 21- year- old was given a difficult task in the outside lane but produced a performance of perfect solitude to sink Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys into silver with a storming late effort.

Scott said: I just had to go out there with no expectations and swim my own race out there in lane eight.

“I didn’t really know what was going on with the rest of the field so it was quite tough in that sense.

“I had a lot of things to correct between the semis and the final and I’m glad I managed to do it.

“I’m just really, really happy with how it went.

“I had no idea where I was in the race. I just kicked on with my race plan - I was just hacking away in the last 25m and hoping.

“I was pretty relaxed in the warm up, but the crowd has been amazing all week - when I took my headphones off it was amazing.

Scott, who is a strapping 6ft 3ins, is part of the South Ayrshire Swim Team.

The Alloa- born swimmer is a Learn to Swim ambassador for South Ayrshire.

Dad Nigel first took Duncan to the pool aged six, along with his big sister Alex.

He struck gold in the 4x100 medley relay team in the Tollcross pool last Thursday, adding to the 4. x200m freestyle relay.

Duncan, who swims for the University of Stirling, clinched the silver medal in the 100m freestyle.