Stirlingswim stars’ success

Stirling University swimmers have been breaking records at short course competitions in Canada and Scotland.

Charlie Boldison, Ross Murdoch, Dan Wallace and Kathleen Dawson all made the trip to the FINA World Championships in Ontario to compete in the faster waters of the 25m pool.

In one of the first international race opportunities of the Tokyo 2020 cycle, 19 year-old Kathleen finished fifth in her first global final in the 100m backstroke and took Scottish records across the championships.

Kathleen now holds Scotland’s national records across the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke events for both long course and short course.

In the final event of the six-day championships, Charlie and Ross swam with Adam Barrett and Stephen Milne in the 4x100m medley relay, finishing fifth.

Closer to home, more than 20 Stirling swimmers competed at the Scottish National Short Course Swimming Championships in Edinburgh.

The team took 15 national titles and broke six records in the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Nineteen year-old Duncan Scott continued his winning form, taking the 200m freestyle in 1:42:47, breaking Robbie Renwick’s record which had stood since 2009. In the same race, team-mates Martyn Walton and Craig McLean won silver and bronze respectively.

Duncan, Martyn and Craig then joined forces with Calum Bain for the 4x100m freestyle, breaking the Scottish club record in 3:12:10.

The Olympic silver medallist also broke the Scottish record in the 200m individual medley final. Martyn Walton picked up silver and Callum Lawrie the bronze. Duncan also won the 100m butterfly and 400m freestyle titles.

Meanwhile, Cameron Brodie finished in silver in the 200m butterfly, pipped by a tenth of a second by Duncan who grabbed another Scottish record.

Craig Benson also enjoyed tremendous success, completing a clean sweep of all three breaststroke titles. The final victory came in 2:05.07 in his Olympic event, the 200m.

Elsewhere, the squad picked up a raft of national titles including Lauren Mills in the 50m butterfly, Calum Bain in the 50m freestyle, Martin Walton in the 100m individual medley and Callum Lawrie in the 400m individual medley.

There was success in the 4x50m freestyle relay for the quartet of Calum Bain, Martyn Walton, Jamie Graham and Duncan Scott who broke the Scottish record on their way to gold. Martyn, Craig Benson, Duncan and Calum also took gold and broke the national record in the 4x50m medley.

Danielle Joyce also had a great week, breaking deaf world records in 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke and 50m and 100m freestyle.