The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scott has eyes on Tokyo after more medal success
Scot aiming to take his European form on to the world stage for 2020 Olympics
He may have won three golds and one silver at these Europeans but Glasgow swimmer Duncan Scott insists he is only scratching the surface with Tokyo 2020 in mind.
The 21-year-old finished off a superb individual week with victory in the men’s 4x100m medley relay last night alongside Nicholas Pyle, James Guy and Adam Peaty – adding to his 200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle titles.
The four set a new championship record in a time of 3m30.44s, beating Russia and Germany into second and third to complete a superb week for Great Britain in the pool that saw them claim nine golds and 24 medals in total.
And with the World Championships in South Korea next year, followed by the Olympics in Tokyo 12 months after, Scott is now keen to take his European form on to the world stage.
“It’s about looking at the little things and the finer details which will make a bigger difference in years to come,” he said.
“We’ll look at ways to improve or look to see if there was anything we could have done differently in the lead up to the meet that might have made it better.
“Coming into that relay team a couple of years ago I had to step up my performances with the likes of Jimmy and Peaty being in the team.
“They’re world-class performers and to be in a team with them and then to have someone like Nick come in and raise his performance is amazing.
“The team swam really well and it’s a great way to end the week.”
It was a golden night in the pool for Great Britain, with Ben Proud romping home to 50m freestyle success.
However, the 23-year-old admits he was a little downbeat when he turned and saw the clock – despite beating Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev to touch home first in 21.34secs.
“That was an imperfect race for sure. Looking at the competition, it was good enough to get my hand on the wall first,” he said.
“But looking to the future, I cannot be doing that in major championships.
“I am very happy with 21.11 last night and I guess 21.3 is fast enough to win the gold but against the rest of the world it will not be enough. I knew from last night there was potential for a little bit more but looking at my start time and my finish, they were two things I could focus on and maybe dip under the 21.11.”
Holly Hibbott rounded off a fine Europeans in the pool with bronze in 400m freestyle to go with her relay gold from earlier in the week.
The 18-year-old produced a late surge to touch home in 4:05.01 – a new personal best – while gold went to Simona Quadarella of Italy with Ajna Kesely of Hungary taking silver.
And another youngster, Freya Anderson, clawed back a bronze for the women’s medley relay in the final event in the pool at these games.
The 17-year-old’s super swim saw her hold off the great Italian Federica Pellegrini to bring the quartet of Alys Thomas, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Georgia Davies home in third behind Russia and Denmark.
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