World C’ships Anchor Hero Duncan Scott Earns Student Sports’ Male AOY Award

The 2020 Scottish Student Sports organization handed out its annual awards this week, with 23-year-old Olympian Duncan Scott adding another trophy to his ever-growing trove. Although the usual in-person ceremony was nixed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the spirit of awards, that of paying tribute to talented, dedicated, and influential people across the student sporting network in Scotland, was celebrated nonetheless.

Scott was honored as the SSS’ Male Athlete of the Year, honoring the University of Stirling student-athlete’s big-time triumphs in the water last year. The man set a new 100m freestyle British national record at the British Championships in April of 2019 before going on to claim 200m freestyle bronze at the 2019 FINA World Aquatic Championships in Gwangju, Korea. Also in Gwangju Scott snagged gold in the men’s 4x100m medley relay after his eye-popping anchor leg that scored the 2nd fastest split in history.

More locally, across both the British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Short Course and Long Course Championships, Scott took home an incredible 12 medals and etched 5 new records into the BUCS books.

The entire University of Stirling Men’s Swimming Team was awarded as SSS’ Team of the Year. The squad won both the BUCS Long and Short Course Championships titles, with the former breaking a 32-year-long winning streak previously held by Loughborough University.

Scottish-based swimmers are still largely out of the water, save for a handful of elite squad members at the University of Stirling, including Scott. Per our report late last month, ‘The [latest Scottish Government] guidance highlights a further easing of restrictions on training for performance and professional athletes, coaches and support staff in Scotland, and which will see the opening of the National Swimming Academy, Stirling.”