ROSS Murdoch stormed to victory at the 2014 British Gas Swimming Championships in Glasgow, successfully defending his 100m breaststroke title as he left Adam Peaty and Michael Jamieson trailing in his wake.
Fresh from his stellar win in the Scottish Gas National Open Swimming Championships last weekend - in which he clocked 59.75 secs and topped the world long-course rankings - Murdoch (University of Stirling) was keen to prove that was no fluke.
And he blew that time out of the water finishing in 59.56 - only 0.001 off Dan Sliwinski's British record - to set back-to-back Scottish records at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre.
England's Peaty (City of Derby) was second in 59.79 and Olympic silver medallist Jamieson (Bath University) third in 1:00.53.
"Words can't really describe what I'm feeling just now," said Murdoch. "I came through the heats and the semi-finals just behind Adam the whole way.
"After [Friday] night's performance, I wasn't too sure where I was at. That last 25m was hell. I just went out as hard as I could and tried to hang on in the back end.
"That record [Sliwinski's] has stood since the super suits were around, so it's a tough one for any Brit to make, but I've definitely got my eye on that for the future."
Murdoch was reluctant to be drawn on just how fast he believes he can go. "If you start telling people times you start to put a limit on yourself," he said. "I've just got to aim for the sky and keep training as I am because everything is paying off."
The 20-year-old from Balfron, Stirlingshire, made the decision to sit out the 200m breaststroke event on Thursday evening, having already set a Team Scotland nomination time of 2:09.15 mins last week. Among the Scots, only Jamieson has gone faster clocking 2:07.79.
Murdoch will open his challenge for the 50m breaststroke title - a distance over which he set a British record of 27.28 at the last weekend's Scottish trials - this morning.
The men's 100m breaststroke is shaping up to be one of the most exciting and fiercely contested events of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. At present, four British swimmers - Murdoch, Peaty, Jamieson and Christopher Steeples - hold top 10 positions in the world. A further three Scots - Craig Benson, Calum Tait and Jamie Graham - currently sit within the top 20.
In the men's 200m butterfly final, Scotland's Cameron Brodie (Kelly College) claimed bronze in 1:57.96 behind winner Roberto Pavoni (Loughborough University) and Joseph Roebuck (University of Bath). Lewis Smith (University of Stirling) finished eighth in 2:00.21.
English swimmer and birthday girl Fran Halsall (Loughborough University) successfully defended her women's 50m freestyle title for the ninth consecutive time in 24.51, while Scot Sian Harkin (University of Stirling) took silver in 25.07.
Sophie Taylor (City of Leeds) took the women's 200m breaststroke title in an English record of 2:24.46, while Scotland's Hannah Miley (Garioch) finished fifth, but remained philosophical with a nomination time of 2:29.31 on the clock.
In the morning heats, Miley swam 2:28.80. "It's a little bit frustrating to go slower in the final - no one wants to go slower - but to still go under [the nomination time] and faster than I went at the Scottish, I can't complain," she said.
The 24-year-old has already gained nomination times in the 800m freestyle, 200m and 400m individual medley. Miley also plans to target the 400m freestyle and 200m butterfly, saying: "I'm just going to try and see how many events I can qualify for.
"Once the 400 IM is out of the way on day one [of the Games] I can pretty much enjoy and try to race some of these events I don't normally get the opportunity to do at an international level."
Scotland's Emma Chittleburgh (Warrender Baths Club) claimed the junior women's 200m breaststroke title in 2:33.22, while her team-mate Katherine Stark finished joint third in the junior women's 50m freestyle final.
English swimmer Thomas Hamer (Burnley BOBC) took the win in the men's S14 200m freestyle in 2:01.91. The British Gas Swimming Championships are not being used as a selection meet by Scottish para-swimmers for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The British Para-Swimming International Meet 2014 gets under way in Glasgow on Friday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article