When the British Swimming Championships conclude this evening, there is no doubt that none will depart Glasgow with their reputation more burnished than Duncan Scott. With European and Commonwealth titles from 2018 and the past haul of two Olympic silvers, his CV is already crammed and impressive. But the 21-year-old’s continued gains are visible even to the untrained eye.
Last night, he came within one-hundredth of a second of claiming the British record in the 200 metres individual medley final with a time of 1:56.65 that removed his former cohort Dan Wallace from the top of the all-time Scottish rankings. A second victory of this week. Again, inside the qualifying standard laid down for July’s world championships in Gwangju. Rivals will fear the Scot in South Korea. But he will not rest until they tremble some more.
“That’s really good, to move that on,” said Scott who bettered his previous benchmark, set in earning a Commonwealth silver in this event 12 months ago. “I’ve felt that sort of time has been in there for a while. It’s just about moving it on and I’m really happy with it.”
READ MORE: Duncan Scott breaks another record at British Swimming Championships
His pedigree in the freestyle is beyond doubt. Victor with a 100m record earlier this week, he will pursue a hat-trick of titles in the 200m tonight. His butterfly is graceful. His backstroke moving forwards. Yet his breaststroke advances have been most striking and that, he insisted, is testament to the benefits of working in the close proximity of Ross Murdoch and Craig Benson at their Stirling University base.
“They’re wonderful technicians and it’s amazing to see what they do,” Scott affirmed. “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.”
Mark Szaranek was only fourth with the Fifer conceding he urgently needs to make a splash in his re-match with Scott today. “I’ve got one shot left to make the worlds,” he acknowledged.
European and Commonwealth champion Ben Proud blew the competition in the 50m freestyle out of the water, triumphing in 21.50 seconds ahead of Edinburgh University duo David Cumberlidge and Jack Thorpe.
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, silver medallist at Rio 2016, won the women’s 200IM in 2:10.34 but the physical and mental demands of renewing her battle against colitis, a bowel disease, has extracted much.
“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 like a few months ago, I wouldn’t be here.”
Georgia Davies clocked 28.10 secs to hold off Lauren Cox in the 50m backstroke with Cassie Wild pipping Kathleen Dawson for third in a tense battle of the Scots.
Holly Hibbott bounced back from her narrow loss in the 200m final to win the women’s 400m freestyle with Samuel Budd earning the men’s 800m freestyle title.
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