Duracell Duncan kept going to bag gutsy third bronze
Duncan Scott won a third bronze in two days after a brilliant come- from- behind charge in the 200m butterfly.
The 20- year- old showed bottomless reserves of energy in the gruelling contest.
And his status as Scotland’s Duracell dream was secured when he also qualified second fastest for today’s 100m freestyle final – and still has another three events to go over the next three days.
But af ter adding to his podium places in the 200m freestyle and 4x100 relay on Friday, Scott revealed he was finally ready for a lie down.
The Stirling University star – already a world gold and Oly mpic si lver medallist – said: “It’s really tough. I don’t know if I can describe it. Your arms and legs are both in lots of pain.
“It’s about trying to stay composed and think about the process of what will get your hand to touch the wall first.
“It was good – but now I just want a lie down! It was late on the Friday night for the relay and early Saturday morning for the heats so it’s been a hard couple of days.
“The turnaround is quite quick but that ’ s the way international swimming is. That’s why we put in the hard hours we do.
I’ve had mixed results on the international stage. There are situations you struggle to sleep at night.
“After the 4x200m silver in Rio, that was one of the nights where limited sleep took place! I had the next morning off though so that was all right.
“It was 1am when I got in last night so I passed straight out.
“The more experienced you are, it’s about the nerves and how you feel.”
With the 100m freestyle final and 4x200 relay to come today, Scott could well add another couple of medals to his haul.
After that he’ll take on the 200 individual medley and the 4x100 medley relay on the final day in the pool on Tuesday.
He admits, though, that his butterfly heroics surprised him as Chad Le Clos took gold for South Africa.
He said: “It’s my first time racing 200 fly internationally and it was a PB. Steve Tigg, my coach, probably had more confidence in this event than I did but it wasn’t until 100 to go that I realised I was in a great situation.” Meanwhile, Ross Murdoch couldn’t add to his 200m breaststroke silver in a qualitypacked 100m won by English superstar and world record holder Adam Peaty.
The Scot said: “It has been pretty good overall. I was beating myself up a bit after that 200 but it’s kind of hard to get it through your head how fast these guys are in the 100. We had a couple of world record holders out there tonight.
“Cameron van der Burgh is the second-fastest man of all time. And Adam is the fastest man ever. Then James Wilby is the man on form. They are three men who all got medals, who deserved to get medals.
“I’m looking forward to seeing this meet off with a flourish in the relays, then moving on.
“There a massive sense of doing it for the team in the relays because there are bound to be a couple of guys who swim in the heats and miss out on the final. We’re doing a job for the guys who put us in that final.
“If Craig Benson swims in the heats for that relay then, absolutely, I want to get him a medal. I’m going out there to provide for the rest of my team.”