Milne and Scott speed to relay gold

WORLD OF SPORT

SCOTTISH duo Stephen Milne and Duncan Scott last night helped the men’s 4x200 metres relay team to Great Britain’s fourth gold medal of swimming’s World Championships.

Milne and Englishman Nick Grainger made a strong start before Scott, 20, from the University of Stirling put James Guy into the position to contend for the podium in Budapest.

Britain had three medals from the first five days of competition, all gold, with two for Adam Peaty, in the 50m and 100m breaststroke and the third for Ben Proud in the 50m butterfly. And on day six the relay team delivered, successfully defending the title won in Kazan, Russia in 2015.

Milne, who was 15th in the 400m freestyle earlier in the week, was a happy man after clinching gold.

The 23-year-old City of Perth swimmer said: “It is such a good feeling right now.

“I knew I just had to get out and give the team a solid start. It was nervy watching the rest of the race unfold but Nick, Duncan and James did really well and it is always special being part of a team that has success.

“The guys on the podium want to give credit to Calum Jarvis, who swam in the morning too.

“For me this is such a good feeling and it sets me up well for the future.”

Bath swimmer Guy, 21, who had earlier in the evening qualified for today’s 100m butterfly final in second place, delivered a storming final leg to touch the wall first.

Britain finished in seven minutes 1.70 seconds, 0.98secs ahead of Russia and 1.48 ahead of the United States, with Guy, who replaced Calum Jarvis after the morning heats, the only swimmer to record a split time beneath 1:44, clocking 1:43.80.

The Bury man, who was fifth in the individual 200m and sixth over 400m, said: “That’s pretty swift. In the (individual) 200 free final I got giddy, got excited and went for it.

“It doesn’t work like that any more. Tonight I stuck to my gameplan and it worked.”

Britain took Olympic silver in the event behind a USA squad including the now-retired Michael Phelps in Rio but were without a key member of the squad from 2015 and 2016 as Dan Wallace is serving a suspension following a drink-driving conviction.

Grainger, 22 from Sheffield, said: “Standing on that podium was absolutely fantastic, having a team like this is brilliant.

“When James touched at the finish, I thought I almost took Duncan out running in for the hug.”