University of Stirling student Ross Murdoch has joined the hall of Scottish swimming legends after winning a 100m breaststroke silver medal at the European Swimming Championships in Berlin on Tuesday 19 August.
Ross’s time of 59.43 seconds helped him to the runner-up spot, 0.47 seconds behind English winner Adam Peaty. The achievement now places him on an illustrious list of swimming greats alongside Ian Black, David Wilkie and Chris Gilchrist as the only Scots to have won an individual medal at the prestigious European event since it was first staged back in 1926.
Ross qualified fastest for tonight’s 200m breaststroke final at the championships.
The second year Sport and Exercise Science student’s achievement comes on the back of winning gold and silver medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games earlier this month.
Professor Gerry McCormac, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “Ross’s recent performances have placed him in the world-class bracket in breaststroke swimming, dominated traditionally by Eastern Europeans. This augurs well for the 2016 Rio Olympics and beyond.
“He has demonstrated effort, self-discipline and resilience over a lengthy period of time in combining training and competition with studying for his higher degree. These are the features of success in high performance sport.”
Ross is ably supported in combining his studies with elite swimming through Winning Students, the national scholarship programme.
Winning Students is Scotland’s national sports scholarship programme for student athletes. Managed by the University of Stirling – which is designated as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence – and funded by the Scottish Funding Council, the programme supports more than 160 high performance student athletes in member colleges and universities across the country with scholarships of up to £5500 each year.
Eighty-three Winning Students, past and present, competed in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Notes for editors
- Background information
European Championships have been held since 1920s.
Individual medal winners are:- 1958 - Ian Black 400FS gold; Ian Black 1500FS gold; Ian Black 200m Fly gold.
1974 - David Wilkie 200mBS gold; David Wilkie 200mIM gold.
2006 - Chris Gilchrist 200mBS bronze.
2014 - Ross Murdoch 100mBS silver.
There have been six Scottish winners in relay teams:- Bobby McGregor, David Cary, Andrew Hunter (Stirling), David Wilkie, Neil Cochrane and Todd Cooper (Stirling).