Gibson has Birmingham in sights after Scottish record
Scott Gibson all but booked his ticket to the Commonwealth Games last night at the British Swimming Championships, a fortnight after his chances looked dead in the water.
The 22-year-old, who competes for Edinburgh University, set a Scottish record of 25.38 seconds in the men’s 50 metres backstroke in the opening morning heats in Sheffield.
Hewaslaterpippedtothebritish title by Canadian transfer Sebastian Somerset in coming second in the final.
But ducking under Scotland’s consideration time for Birmingham twice in one day has Gibson gearing up for a breakthrough summer.
He said: “Two weeks ago, I tested positive for Covid. So to come here and even just swim best times is more than I could ask for. And being consistently undertheconsiderationispretty good all things considered givenmyprep,i’mhappywithit.
“It did take the pressure off that I’ve banked swims earlier in the year. I’m a bit gutted about the end result but given the uncertainty I had going into this meet, I’m pretty buzzing too.”
Stirling University’s Martyn Walton also put himself in the frame for Birmingham by taking the B final in 25.59, weeks after switching allegiance to Scotland. “It was a decision I made after five years of residency,” the former English swimmersaid.“itwasoneiwasreally happytomake-tobehonest,it’s really spurred me on.”
With the event also doubling
as the UK’S trials for June’s world championships in Budapest, Adam Peaty laid down a marker for more global glory bysweepingtothe100mbreaststroke title. The world record holder, unbeaten in the event since 2014, clocked 58.58 secs in only his second competition sinceretaininghisolympictitle
to beat out James Wilby - with Scots prospect Archie Goodburn just 0.04 outside the Birmingham mark in fourth.
Rossmurdochandcraigbenson earned Commonwealth qualifying times in the heats but then pulled out of the final to save their energy for today’s 50m breaststroke.
Abbie Wood edged out Freya Anderson by two-hundredths of a second to take the women’s 200mfreestylewithapoorheat condemning Lucy Hope to settle for winning the B final.
Glaswegian teen Katie Shanahan was third in the 400m individual medley with Aberdeen’s Yvonne Brown sixth.