2023 SCOTTISH SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, December 8th – Sunday, December 10th
- Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh, Scotland
- SCM (25m)
- Livestream
- Live Results
While the likes of Duncan Scott and Keanna MacInnes are in the water at the 2023 European Short Course Championships, many of their fellow swimmers are taking on the 2023 Scottish Short Course Championships which just got underway in Edinburgh.
Bath’s Kieran Bird crushed a statement-making swim this evening, taking down a longstanding British record in the process.
24-year-old Bird busted out a time of 7:36.26 to take the men’s 800m free event by over 16 seconds. His result established a shiny new personal best, erasing his previous PB of 7:37.95 established at this same meet last year.
However, Bird’s time also overtook the national record of 7:36.47 storied swimmer David Davies put on the books over a decade ago in 2009.
Bird said post-race, “I came here wanting the British Record. I would have liked to have gone a bit quicker than that but I think the adrenalin carried me on a bit. I was out fast on the first four, but overall, really happy with that swim. I think you have to have a solid winter block to go into a long course season. My focus is on the 400 this year, with the 200 supplementing it, but 400 free long, I just need to PB at Trials, and hopefully make the team.”
Immediately following Bird’s swim, 14-year-old Amelie Blocksidge of the City of Salford scored a new British Junior Record in the women’s 800m free.
Blocksidge clocked a result of 8:21.97, reducing her previous lifetime best of 8:25.61 notched just this past October. The teen’s outing surpassed the previous British Junior Record of 8:23.58 Keri-Anne Payne logged over 20 years ago in 2002.
Blocksidge now checks in as the 13th-swiftest British performer, all ages, of all time. Her result would have rendered her the 4th place finisher at this year’s European Short Course Championships underway in Romania.
The Salford swimmer commented on her performance, “I wasn’t really thinking about the record I just went in wanting to do my best and leaving everything I had in the pool. I’m happy with the PB and the record is a bonus. I look up to a lot of distance swimmers, I don’t think there are too many in Britain, so I look up to people who have come before me, and Keri-Anne is definitely someone I admire.”
Finally, Dean Fearn of Aberdeen nailed a new British Junior Record in the men’s 50m butterfly. Fearn turned in a time of 24.01 to slice .08 off Nicholas Finch‘s former record of 24.09 set in 2021.