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
While an elite set of Scottish swimmers such as Kathleen Dawson and Mark Szaranek are presently contesting the best in the world at the 2016 FINA World Championships in Windsor, Canada, there is plenty of talent still taking to a pool closer to home. This year’s Scottish Short Course Championships kicked off today in Edinburgh in record-setting style.
After setting herself up nicely with a 100m breaststroke top-seeded time of 1:07.31, Edinburgh’s Corrie Scott took things to another level this evening, scorching the pool with a personal best of 1:06.06 for the win. That time lays waste to the previous Scottish National Record of 1:06.22 held by Kathryn Johnstone since last year. Scott is continuing to make a name for herself in this discipline, having already notched her nation’s 50m breaststroke cord (30.71) back in 2014. Scott is set to swim that splash n’ dash event tomorrow. She also holds that same record in the LCM distance as well.
There were also a few almost-national records as well today, with swimmers Craig McNally and Duncan Scott coming super close in their respective events. First in the men’s 200m backstroke, City of Glasgow standout McNally registered a swift time of 1:52.18 to represent the only competitor of the field to dip below the 1:55 mark tonight. His time fell just about half a second short of the current national record of 1:51.66 held by Gregor Tait.
2016 Olympic medalist Scott got even closer on two separate accounts. Scott, who earned a silver in Rio both as part of his nation’s 4x200m freestyle relay and and the 4x100m medley relay, scored a nasty 3:40.40 400m freestyle, a time which fell just .21 of a second off of Stephen Milne’s Scottish National Record (3:40.19). For perspective, Scott’s 3:40.40 effort would have landed him a 7th place finish in a stacked field in Windsor.
Even prior to the 400m, however, Scott fired off a mighty 51.36 100m butterfly to snatch gold in Edinburgh. That’s a best time for the 19-year-old and it fell just .01 shy of the 51.35 countrymate Mark Szaranek checked in with in Windsor for a shiny new Scottish National Record. The fact that Scott is a major player across several distances, as evidenced today and by the fact he finaled in the men’s 100m freestyle in Rio, is simply a testament to the range this University of Stirling stud truly has.
Additional Winners:
- Camilla Hattersley of City of Glasgow smoked an 8:26.48 women’s 800m freestyle to finish just .43 of a second ahead of 2nd place finisher Danielle Huskisson of Stirling (8:26.91).
- The men’s 50m freestyle went to Calum Bain of Stirling, who touched in 22.01, just .01 ahead of silver medalist David Cumberlidge.
- Emily Jones of Edinburgh took the women’s 200m IM in 2:10.26, while Midland’s Keanna MacInnes claimed gold in the 200m butterfly (2:08.79).
- Edinburgh’s Lucy Hope notched two wins on the night. She scored a swift 27.24 to win the women’s 50m backstroke, followed shortly by a winning time of 54.18 in the 100m freestyle.
What a pure swimming talent is Duncan Scott!
Considering LCM, 100 and 200 free are obviously his best events, in which every target (also the Olympic golds in Tokyo2020) isn’t out of reach for him.
And then I think that also in 200 im and 100 fly he’s going to have great improvements.
Him and Guy both seem to be pretty multi-talented across strokes and distances.