Murdoch still treading water in recovery

ROSS Murdoch admits the road to redemption has included a few bumps in the road – especially after missing out on a medal in August’s European Championships in Glasgow, writes Mark Woods.

Yet British Swimming retained the 24-year-old on their Lottery funding list, a vote of confidence that he can still plot a course towards success at Tokyo 2020.

“I took an extra week off to get my head clear and back into things,” the Scot said after claiming the 50m breaststroke title at the Scottish short course championships in Edinburgh last night, setting a Scottish record of 26.56 sec in his heat before emerging triumphant from the final.

“It’s hard to predict anything off a short-course season because form is temporary,” he reflected. “You can hit it here but next week, I might be worse.”

Meanwhile, Duncan Scottook victory in the 100m butterfly, then lowered the Scottish record in the 100m individual medley before rounding off his session by helping Stirling University to 4x50 medley gold.

Today will test his energies to the full, darting back to the pool after sitting a business studies exam towards his university degree.