European Short-Course Championships
Glasgow, Day 2 Heats
Duncan Scott shattered the British 200m freestyle record to move up to fourth in the all-time textile rankings with a time of 1min 40.92secs on the second morning of the European Short-Course Swimming Championships here at Tollcross in Glasgow.
The Scot, who was born in Glasgow, pulled away in the fifth of six heats to take a whopping 1.30secs from the previous record held by James Guy since August 2016.
He then returned 90 minutes later to set a personal best of 4:01.20 in the 400IM heats, qualifying first for tonight’s final which will be held 31 minutes after the 200 free decider.
All-suits, Scott moves up to No8 all-time from 44th on 1:42.47, a time he clocked back in December 2016 as a teenager. In textile, Scott, coached by Steven Tigg at the University of Stirling, is now No4 all-time in textile, just 0.12sec away from the Commonwealth record shared at 1:40.80 by Canadian Brent Hayden, from 2009, and Australian Cameron McEvoy.
The Top 4 All-Time In Textile
- 1:39.70 Yannick Agnel FRA 2012
- 1:40.80 Cameron McEvoy AUS 2015
- 1:40.85 Danas Rapsys LTU 2017
- 1:40.92 Duncan Scott GBR 2019
Scott’s scorching effort this morning follows his national mark in the long-course 200m when he became the first British man to dip inside 1:45 when he led off the 4x200m freestyle relay at the World Championships in Gwangju in 1:44.91.
Scott was 1.60secs ahead of Russian Mikhail Vekovishchev who qualified second for Thursday’s final with Guy swimming his best time for three years in 1:42.57 to progress in third, Danas Rapsys – who set a new championship record and personal best en-route to the 400m free title on Wednesday – the next through.
The championship record set by Paul Biedermann in December 2009, as the shiny-suit farce that so distorted the sport drew to an end, is 1.11secs ahead of Scott’s new high.
Scott could barely speak following his 400IM heat but explained that his fast morning swimming was all part of the plan looking to Tokyo 2020.
He told Swimming World: “I am treating the heats here like finals: all-in in the mornings, just trying to challenge myself, I knew this was going to be a tough double to go all-in on both of them.
“It’s going to be even tougher next year so that was a really tough turnaround but I am delighted with both those swims. It’s hurting a lot but that’s why I came, I came to really challenge myself and really just expose myself under immense bits of fatigue and see what happens you know.
“My pull off the wall or how my technique is and deal with it so this is exactly what I am trying to get out of it but I am hurting!
“Usually my strongest part is my freestyle but that breaststroke I was hurting so bad. The reason I am doing it is simply to challenge myself: I am not a 400IM swimmer, I used to be but not so much any more. So I can get away with it short-course but as I say it is really good preparation for next year for the 200IM, doing that long-course. It’s a really tough event but I am glad that I have done it and I’ll get a lot out of it.”
Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
There was a nod to team-mates Guy and Tom Dean who returned to the pool the morning after claiming 400 free silver, finishing seventh overall in 1:43.32 only to miss out with just the top two per nation progressing.
Scott said: “Last year I had a bit of a compromised short-course season with that slight injury so I didn’t really get to see what I was really capable of and I wasn’t really able to push things so hard last year at this time. This year I came in and my speed has felt really good, PBs quite a bit on the 50 free and things like that.
“I think Jimmy (Guy) would be able to say he could probably go quicker than that as well. Deano (Tom Dean) is there and he had the 400 last night so to come back and go 1:43 is impressive. We are getting plenty of depth in that 200: that is me all-in, Jimmy could go 1:40 tonight and go quicker, I reckon he has probably got a wee bit left so it’s great to have that.
“I’ve been on teams with Jimmy for years now and he is someone I was able to look up to, world champion in 2015, and it’s great to be able to race and train with him.”
There were several notable performances in the heats with the Tollcross water clearly suiting many.
Photo Courtesy: Foto Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia /Insidefoto
Kliment Kolesnikov was a surprise absentee from Wednesday’s 200m backstroke final in which he was the defending champion but he ensured there was no repeat in the 100m as he led the way in an eye-opening 49.52.
That is 0.62secs off his European and world junior records and 0.55 outside the championship record held jointly by his fellow Russians Stanislav Donets and Arkady Vyatchanin, the pair setting the mark of 48.97 10 years ago in Istanbul when Kolesnikov was nine.
Shane Ryan was second through in a new Irish record of 50.45 but there was no room in the semis for 200m champion and double 100m gold medallist Radoslaw Kawecki who was 19th.
Gregorio Paltrinieri went 14:18.10 to progress first in a 1,500 freestyle that promises much. The Olympic champion was 3.48secs ahead of 2017 gold medallist Mykhaylo Romanchuk of Ukraine with Denmark’s Henrik Christiansen through next in 14:24.79.
The trio occupied the podium at the 2017 edition in Copenhagen with Paltrinieri and Christiansen on the second and third step respectively.
Arno Kamminga returned from claiming 50m breaststroke bronze to head the field into the 200m final.
The Netherlands swimmer touched in 2:02.41 ahead of Erik Persson of Sweden and 2017 silver medallist Marco Koch of Germany.
Great Britain’s Ross Murdoch reached his first European short-course final in sixth but team-mate James Wilby, who claimed 11 world, European and Commonwealth long-course medals in 2018/19, was down in 16th.
There was a British one-two in the women’s 100m freestyle with Freya Anderson (52.03) and Anna Hopkin (52.71) leading the way into tonight’s semi-finals while Melanie Henique of France headed the 50m butterfly in 25.37.
Maria Kameneva occupied top spot in the 100m individual medley in 58.67, 0.31 ahead of Katinka Hosszu who is undertaking the second part of her three-pronged IM assault following Wednesday’s 400m victory as the Hungarian claimed her 60th international gold medal.
Russia and the Netherlands booked the centre lanes in the mixed 4x50m medley relay.
