Proud takes 50m silver in Copenhagen

Ben Proud won silver in the 50m freestyle at the European Short Course Championships in Copenhagen.

Proud, who claimed gold in the 50m butterfly at the World Aquatics Championships in July as well as freestyle bronze, had qualified in fifth place for yesterday’s final.

The 23-year-old then produced a fine sprint display when back in Royal Arena pool as he held off Italian Luca Dotto to take second place behind Russian Vladimir Morozov.

Plymouthleanderswimmer Proud clocked a new personal best of 20.66 seconds as Morozov set a championship record of 20.31secs to take gold.

Earlier, Olympic champion Adam Peaty had qualified in second place for the 100m breaststroke final.

Peaty, who had to settle for bronze in the 50m breaststroke on the opening day, won the first semifinal with a championship record of 56.74.

However, Russian Kirill Prigoda then recorded the fastest time of 56.02, which set a new European record in heat two.

Ross Murdoch’s swim of 57.55 was enough to see the Scot through to today’s final in seventh place.

Elsewhere, Kathryn Greenslade missed out on a medal with a fourth place in the 200m backstroke final.

Duncan Scott had won bronze in the men’s 200m freestyle on Thursday, however the 20-year-old Scot could only manage ninth place in his 200m medley preliminary.