Superstar Stirling University swimmer Duncan Scott has been hitting the heights as part of his preparation for July’s World Championships.
The 26-year-old has already enjoyed a stellar career in the pool, including stepping on the top of the podium at World Championship level four times in 2017 and 2019 – on top of the Olympic gold as part of the Great British 4x200m relay quartet.
Despite that list of accolades, the hunger hasn’t diminished for Scott – who is set to lead a talented Stirling-based contingent at the championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
The weekend saw Scott competing against some domestic rivals, as well as swimmers from across the UK and abroad at the Glasgow International Swim Meet, held at the Tollcross pool.
He broke the meet record in winning the 100m freestyle final, winning ahead of fellow Stirling University athlete Jack McMillan, another of those set to head to the Far East on
July 14.
He also claimed success in the 200m freestyle final, once again beating out McMillan and another Stirling University swimmer – Evan Jones – into silver and bronze medal positions.
Scott said: “It’s been a while since I raced, and I’m coming off a training camp with a couple of the guys who were racing there. Looking at some of my times, they are the quickest I’ve been in season so that’s a good sign of things going in the right direction.
“We are now in Flagstaff in October, January and May. It’s a British Swimming camp so there are athletes from across the British programmes and this elevates what we get out of it, especially on certain session, and it keeps us professional.
“There’s also the benefits of training at altitude, the benefit to aerobic fitness.
“For events I do like the 200, it’s probably, arguably, on the lower end of it, but I definitely feel the benefit and training up there is pretty challenging so you always feel the benefits when you come back.”
There was more success for the Stirling group at the meet, with Katie Shanahan and Kathleen Dawson – the other two locally-based swimmers selected for the Worlds – also winning golds at the meet.
The quartet have recently returned from an altitude training block in North Arizona University in Flagstaff, designed to put them in peak condition for the big event in a couple of weeks.
Shanahan added: “I had such a good three weeks. They were a lot harder than when we went in January, but it’s good to be making those small gains and that’s really setting me up in good stead for the rest of the season, having that block of work behind me.
“This is the exciting part of training now – we’ve finished our aerobic block and we can start focusing on the anaerobic side of things.
“I’m just really looking forward to the summer now.”
