2016 SCOTTISH SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, December 9th – Sunday, December 11th
- Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh
- Prelims 8:45am local/Finals 5:30pm local
- Live Streaming (Finals)
- Live Results
- Day 1 Recap
19-year-old Duncan Scott is proving to be unstoppable in Edinburgh, claiming two additional titles at the 2016 Scottish Short Course Championships. After earning wins yesterday in the 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly yesterday, the University of Stirling swimmer scorched the field in two 200m distance events during day 2.
The first victim to fall to Scott was the 200m IM, where the teen surged to the wall first in a super quick 1:53.82. That mark knocked two seconds off of his own personal best and fell just .05 shy of cracking the newly-minted Scottish National Record in the event. Scott overtook the once national record held by now-Stirling teammate Dan Wallace, which stood at 1:55.18 from last year’s Duel in the Pool. However, just days ago countrymate Mark Szaranek registered a new national record with the 1:53.77 he earned competing at the Short Course World Championships in Windsor. As such, Scott is the 2nd fastest Scottish racer ever in the 200m IM.
But the double Olympic silver medalist wasn’t satisfied with just one gold tonight, as Scott also attacked the 200m butterfly. Alongside training mate and national record holder Cameron Brodie, Scott stayed one step ahead the entire race, ultimately touching just two tenths ahead for the gold. In the process, Scott’s time tonight of 1:54.59 checks in as a new national record, surpassing that of Brodie’s 1:54.68 from 2014. For perspective, Scott would have earned 6th in Windsor’s final with his performance tonight. For Brodie, he was just off his record tonight, claiming silver in 1:54.81.
On his 4 national titles with one day left to go in the meet, Scott commented, “These finals have been difficult to get into. I’ve been trying different things in the heats, lengthening my stroke a little. Everything seemed to come together correctly tonight and I was certainly happy with those times. Dropping ten seconds from the heats in my IM, I didn’t know I had that in the locker!”
Talking about the 200m butterfly final, Scott continued,“The butterfly was something of a focus for me before freestyle came. It’s a harder event and it prepares you for the 200m freestyle.
“That was a really good race, (Cameron) Brodie is an incredible racer, an incredible team-mate.”
The meet concludes tomorrow, with prelims beginning at 8:45am local.
Additional Winners:
- Lucy Hope of Edinburgh crushed a 50m freestyle win in 25.07, adding another gold to her 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle victories from night 1.
- Stirling’s Craig Benson also added more hardware, claiming tonight’s 100m breaststroke win (58.03) after taking gold yesterday in the 50m breast.
- City of Glasgow’s 200m backstroke national title winner Craig McNally cruised to another win tonight, taking the 50m distance in 24.40.
- Yesterday’s 100m breaststroke national record setter Corrie Scott scored another win today, taking the women’s 50m in 30.74, the only sub-31-second outing of the field.
- In a repeat of the same 1-2 finish from the women’s 800m freestyle last night, City of Glasgow’s Camilla Hattersley and Stirling’s Danielle Huskisson earned the same result in the 400m freestyle. Hattersley touched first in 4:05.75, with Huskisson for silver in 4:11.56.
- Another repeat winner came in the form of Edinburgh’s David Cumberlidge. He earned the 50m freestyle victory yesterday nd followed that up with the 100m freestyle win tonight, taking the gold in 47.64.