Mclay boosted by worlds ahead of Dressel showdown
After lapping up his two relay outings at the world swimming championships, Scott Mclay now wants to beat the Americans on their home turf and prove he’s ready to make a splash at next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
The 20-year-old, who helped Great Britain to fifth place in the 4x100 freestyle relay at the world championships in Gwangju last week, has jetted across the Pacific to link up with a seven-strong Scotland team for the US National Championships in San Francisco.
Mclay is aiming to put his recent experiences to good use when he takes on the USA’S golden boy Caeleb Dressel in the 100m freestyle and butterfly. It will be daunting task, though, with Dressel having bagged six world titles in South Korea.
Mclay said: “This is the end of season meet and I want to see what I can produce.
“That’s why I’m going, to see how I’ll perform after the training block in Japan and Korea.
“I really want to give the butterfly a good crack. Last year I went to the Canadian trials with Stirling and entered the 100 fly as a training tool. It’s a longer event than the freestyle and that was the first time I’d done it competitively at senior level.
“I went from 56 seconds to a 54 and then did it at BUCS [British Universities] and went to a 53 and then to a 52 at trials. It’s not like I do a lot of work on it. But it’s fun. I won’t rule it out and I’ll see how I go because it keeps my options open.”
Mclay will be joined at Stanford by a crop of Scots who missed out on the worlds, including Hannah Miley, Kathleen Dawson and Lucy Hope, all with one eye on reaching next summer’s Olympics.
And Tokyo will also be a driving force for Mclay over the next ten months.
He added: “There’s nothing to say I couldn’t make a leap that gets me an Olympic final. And I might do really well next year. But by 2024, I’ll have another four years of experience and I’ll just need to take it step by step.”