Duncan Scott believes he has found the improvements required to be a golden boy in Tokyo this summer, providing the Olympics Games get the green light.
The European champion will get his final tune-up for next month’s British trials at this weekend’s Edinburgh International. He joins a host of leading British lights, including Adam Peaty and Freya Anderson, when the meeting begins this morning.
And the 22-year-old – who will compete in three events including the 200 metres freestyle – is confident his winter’s work at his University of Stirling base has left him in prime shape to sink his domestic and international rivals.
“So far, it’s been going really well,” he said. “We’re still a wee bit out. We’ve competition, the training, then a taper. I competed really well at Bangor and BUCS recently but that can be a false positive this early in the season. But now it’s about challenging myself at the trials and see where I land.
“It’s about continuous improvement. That’s the big thing at Stirling in our model. Not only does it help with longevity but also getting better. So if I can go to the trials and challenge my personal bests, I’ll be really happy. If I can move them on, I know I won’t be far away come the Olympics.”
The annual meet at Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Pool is proceeding despite fears the coronavirus outbreak could see the Olympics cancelled or the trials disrupted. And Scott insists he has little option but to carry on with his preparations.
“I know I’ve got five weeks until the trials, prepare for them, make sure I’m in the best shape possible,” he said. “We’ve got a pre-trials camp in Tenerife coming up and no-one is sure if that’s going ahead. But otherwise, it has to be business as normal and we get on with it.”
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 here