Historic Commonwealth Gold Medal for Stirling’s Duncan Scott

The University of Stirling’s Duncan Scott has become Scotland’s most decorated swimmer at a single Commonwealth Games, adding to his earlier haul of three bronze medals by winning gold and bronze in the 100m Freestyle and 4x200m Freestyle.

His win came in a ‘stacked’ 100m Freestyle final at the Aquatics Centre on the Gold Coast, where he timed his race to perfection to take the first ever gold by a Scottish athlete in this event, forcing South Africa's Chad le Clos and the Olympic Champion and home crowd favourite, Kyle Chalmers, of Australia, to share joint second place. Cameron McEvoy‚ the fastest 100m freestyler in a textile suit, came fourth.

Swimmer Duncan Scott wins historic Commonwealth gold medal

Later in the evening Scott lined up alongside Stephen Milne, Dan Wallace and Mark Szaranek in the 4x200m Freestyle final, earning Scotland a second bronze medal in the relay events behind Australia and England.

Cathy Gallagher, Director of Sport at the University of Stirling, said: “What an amazing achievement by Duncan in the blue riband event of swimming. It was a phenomenal race between the world’s top swimmers, and Duncan has proven his undoubted pedigree at this level

“I would also like to congratulate the relay team on their second bronze medal win and recognise the role of our High Performance Coaching team, Steve Tigg, Bradley Hay and Josh Williamson.  Alongside the expertise and support of Scottish Swimming and the sportscotland Institute of Sport, the performances and successes of the swimmers is testament to the world-class sporting environment we have in place at the University.

“We are very proud of all our athletes who are performing to the top of their abilities on the Gold Coast."

Other successes by University of Stirling athletes at the Commonwealth Games have included a gold medal for Aimee Willmott in the 400m individual medley final and a silver for Ross Murdoch in the 200m breaststroke final, while former scholar Marc Austin took bronze in the triathlon.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast, in Australia, runs between 4 and 15 April 2018.