Scott finishes with a flourish
● Third gold and fourth medal in total for Scots swimmer on final night in pool
0 Britain’s Adam Peaty, Nicholas Pyle, James Guy and Duncan Scott celebrate European Championship gold in the 4x100m medley relay. Duncan Scott brought the curtain down on a remarkable home European Championships by winning his third gold and his fourth medal in total in the Tollcross pool.
The Scots swimmer triumphed alongside Adam Peaty, Nicholas Pyle and James Guy in the British men’s 4x100m medley relay team, setting a new championship record on the final night of the swimming in Glasgow. Scott was born in the city, raised in Alloa and swims for University of Stirling. He received a rapturous reception from the home crowd.
His medal haul now comprises golds in the individual 200m freestyle, the 4x200m freestyle relay and last night’s medley relay; and a silver in the 100m freestyle.
“It’s always a pleasure to finish a week with the relay guys,” Scott said. “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.”
Peaty, meanwhile, praised the new “fearless” breed of swimmers in the British team. The Englishman claimed his fourth gold medal of the European Championships, but he hailed the emergence of people such as Freya Anderson.
The 17-year-old picked up bronze in the final race of the event – the 4x100metre medley relay – to take her own personal medal tally to three and together with fellow teenagers suchashollyhibbottandimogen Clark, who also won medals on the final night at Tollcross, have shown the future is strong for British swimming.
“They have been fearless,” said Peaty. “And in four years’ time maybe they will be standing here with four gold medals as well.
“They are only 17/18 and it just proves that we are not just a ‘Generation Z’, we have the back-up coming through to Tokyo [2020 Olympics] and beyond. Hopefully I can lead a good team into Tokyo with the older ones as well.”
Team GB finished the swimming with a total of 24 medals – nine of which were gold – leaving them second only to Russia with 26 in the pool.