Wonderkid Duncan’s doubled up Tollcros‘‘at s
WHAT’S a couple of hundredths of a second between friends? Well, rather a lot actually, when it can decide whether you end up with a European Championship medal or not. Or whether an awe- inspiring world record ever makes it into the record books.
A head- scratching day at t h e E u r o p e a n Championships in Glasgow 2 018 saw Eu r op e a n swimming body LEN discover a problem with the starting mechanism at Tollcross which resulted in reported times being 0.1 s e c ond s fa s t e r t h a n in reality.
These included Adam Peaty’s blistering, headl i n e - g r a b b i n g 100m breaststroke world record of 57.00secs from Saturday night which was promptly rounded down to 57.10.
Although this was still an improvement on his existing world record by 0.03secs, the Englishman will face a sweat over all of this until world governing body FINA convene to ratify the record.
While this controversy – rather more important in s ome ways than the Hampden gaffe where North Korean athletes were greeted with the sight of the South Korean flag in a women’s match at the 2012 Olympics – was making waves here yesterday, thankfully there were a couple of top- class Scottish performers proving i t i s how you f i n i s h , not how you start, that really matters.
That was certainly the case with Duncan Scott, the 21- year- old phenomenon who took a record haul of six medals from the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast in April.
He added a European gold and silver medal to his name, playing a storming role in the British 4x200m freestyle relay squad which took this title in a new championship record time of 7.05.32, after he had to settle for a silver medal in a breathless finish to his favoured 100m freestyle behind Alessandro Miressi of Italy.
While his time of 48.23 was just two tenths outside the Italian’s time, only one hundredth of a second separated silver from bronze. And if it was any consolation, his winning time in this event from the Gold Coast would still only have been good enough for silver here. Once again, Scott’s extreme finishing speeds was very much in evidence, being no better than sixth as he turned for the last 50m, this Tollcross crowd willed him to the wall.
While he still had enough left in the tank to produce a 26.55 split time for his last 50m in the relay, as he teamed up with Calum Jarvis, Tom Dean and James Gu y t o r e - w r i t e t he competition’s record books, the only genuine downside on h i s d a y h a d c ome much earlier.
In the heats for the 200m individual medley he found himself in the same boat as Ross Murdoch had been on Friday, being the third fastest qualifier eliminated as the two ahead of him were fellow Brits. Fastest of all was Scot land’s Mark Szaranek, who duly took his place in today’s final.
“It is tough, I haven’t quite got easy speed that I might have had at different points of the year so I had to maybe try to execute different skills,” said Scott.
“It was another one of those blanket finishes in the 100 free when it is just about getting your hand on the wall and thankfully I did.
“I didn’t know what was happening across the other side of the pool – it would be great if I could have had a wee birds’ eye view of it.
“When it comes to a major meet like this I can’t really ask for much more, after the semi- final and the heat I had to drop that pretty good.
“I was just really happy to get on the podium – other boys put in some good swims.”
Then there was Ross Murdoch, whose misfortune in the 100m breaststroke may yet pay dividends in his preferred event, the 200m breaststroke.
The 24- year- old from Alexandria timed his effort to per fe c t ion to outst r ip Russia’s Kirill Prigoda and win his semi- final in a time of 2.08.57 which made him the event’s third- fastest qualifier, then passed on heartfelt birthday wishes to his one- time rival Michael Jamieson, who turned 20 yesterday.
“It feels great but to be honest I am not thinking too much about that swim,” said Murdoch. “That is just my dinner ticket for tomorrow.”
The Scot said he was in the dark over the timing furore but sympathised with his 10 0 m b r e a s t s t r o k e rival Peaty.
“To be honest I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “I was rolling out earlier on and I heard someone muttering away in the background about it. But I was preparing for my own race. What a sw i m i t wa s . He i s an animal.”
There was a further British gold yesterday, Georgia Davies of Wales winning at Tollcross in the 50m backstroke, as she did at Glasgow 2014.
“I have so many fond memories here. You can’t say a pool is fast but this one feels fast for me.” Too fast, some might say. time was
When it comes to a major meet like this, I can’t ask for much more
out of a chance to ride for the medals in the individual pursuit in despite a qualifying ride which vindicated British Cycling’s decision to hand him his first GB vest as a ‘ guest rider’.
The 27- year- old, working in the family business until he took up track cycling in the lead- up to the Gold Coast, out- performed his KGF clubmate Charlie Tanfield to record the fifthfastest time, 4.17.119, only to be robbed of a last four spot at the death but this will be food for thought for the selectors.
“I really wanted to smash it for the home crowd [ the cheers were outrageous],” he tweeted afterwards, “but I parked the last kilo after going high round the catch and never getting the rhythm back. But fifth isn’t a bad result.”
There’s something special about competing on home water but for rower Harry Leask picking up a maiden senior medal back where he fell in love with the sport is a feat he’ll cherish forever.
The Edinburgh rower first discovered