Swim stars dominate at national short course champs

The University of Stirling’s swimming team lived up to its reputation this past weekend as it claimed 50 medals at the Scottish Short Course Championships in Edinburgh.

Thanks to its medal haul, which included seven new national records, the team also won the overall Top Club prize with a total of 1452 ahead of second-placed University of Edinburgh (956 points).

Leading the way for Stirling were Olympians Ross Murdoch, Duncan Scott and Aimee Wilmott, who won ten golds between them, whilst there were also titles wins for Martyn Walton, Callum Lawrie, Danielle Huskisson, Scott McLay, and first-year scholars Keanna MacInnes and Cassie Wild.

Commenting on her victory, Wild said: “I decided I was going to go out really hard and then I was just going to really work the underwaters, as at short course I knew how important that would be. So it’s nice to know that all the little things I’m trying to do at training are working.”

It was a record-breaking weekend for the team, with Murdoch claiming new national records in the 50m and 100m breaststroke. Meanwhile, Scott, who was recently named Sports Personality of the Year at the Scottish Sports Awards, recorded the fastest ever Scottish 100m individual medley time.

Teammate MacInnes also swam a new record time in the 100m butterfly whilst Team Scotland athlete McLay broke Stirling alumnus Todd Cooper’s 15 year-old national record in the 50m butterfly event.

With a personal haul of four medals, McLay was pleased with a good weekend’s work. He said: “I’ve kind of been focusing on everything here really but with it being Short Course obviously the turns come into it a lot. I’m very happy with how the meet has gone overall.”

The men’s relay teams were similarly dominant as they broke national records when winning the 4 x 50m medley, 4 x 50m freestyle and 4 x 100m freestyle relay races.

Commenting on the weekend’s successes, University of Stirling Head Performance Swimming Coach, Steven Tigg, said: “The Scottish Short Course Championships are a great way to round off the year and I’m particularly pleased with the collective success from the weekend.

“There was some impressive racing from our experienced athletes and several eye-catching performances from our younger swimmers, which is very encouraging as we head into the new year.”