Scott shows he is No 1 after yet another victory
THE acceleration of Duncan Scott into the swimming stratosphere shows no signs of stalling.
At the British Championships in Glasgow last night, the 21-year-old pushed himself into previously unchartered waters by coming within one-hundredth of a second of the UK record in claiming 200metres individual medley gold, his second victory of the week.
His time of 1:56.65 removed Dan Wallace from the top of the all-time Scottish rankings. Brilliant in the butterfly, buoyant in the backstroke, ferocious in the freestyle but now also a battering ram in the breaststroke, obtaining the automatic qualifying time for July’s World Championships ensures Alloa’s aquatic ace will have a busy schedule in Gwangju.
‘It’s obviously a step in the right direction, a big personal best,’ said Scott, who ducked well under his previous mark set in landing Commonwealth silver 12 months ago. ‘That’s really good to move that on. I’ve felt that sort of time has been in there for a while.’
Having won the 100m freestyle earlier this week, he can pick up a third prize on the closing evening in the 200m free. Neither would be as satisfying as this, he hinted. And credit for the strides made can be shared with Ross Murdoch and Craig Benson, his training partners in Stirling.
‘They’re wonderful technicians and it’s amazing to see what they do,’ said Scott. ‘Maybe once every month, I try to give them a wee race and it never really pays off for me.
‘But it’s great to have so many world-class athletes in different strokes in Stirling.’
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, silver medallist at Rio 2016, won the women’s 200 individual medley in 2:10.34, but the physical and mental toll from the recent renewal of her fight against colitis, a bowel disease, has extracted a great deal.
‘I’ve had it for six years but this is probably the hardest I’ve had in dealing with it,’ the 23-year-old revealed. ‘That’s not an excuse. Every athlete goes through tough times. Unfortunately, this knocked me back for quite a few months. It’s under control now which is good. If it was a few months ago, I wouldn’t be here.’
Georgia Davies won the women’s 50m backstroke in 28.10 secs while Ben Proud demolished his rivals in the men’s 50m freestyle, with Edinburgh Uni duo David Cumberlidge and Jack Thorpe left to plough through the European champion’s slipstream.
Thorpe was a mere fourhundredths of a second outside his Scottish record of 22.44 secs but Proud, aiming to retain his world title in the 50m butterfly after chasing the domestic version today, will head to Korea on a mission to rehearse his bid for Olympic glory next summer.
‘I want to see how my body reacts to the high stresses and racing the top guys in the world,’ he said. ‘If I don’t get any medals, that’s fine as long as I do well in Tokyo next year.’