Stirling’s swim team broke numerous records on their way to winning 50 medals at the Scottish Short Course Championships held in Edinburgh. The event took place from 7th-9th December.
A strong team performance saw the team win overall Top Club, coming ahead of the University of Edinburgh.
The team was spearheaded by the experienced Olympic trio of Ross Murdoch, Duncan Scott and Aimee Wilmott, who bought in ten medals between them.
Murdoch enjoyed success in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, claiming new national records in both races.
After being crowned Sports Personality of the Year at the Scottish Sports Awards, Scott swam the fastest ever Scottish 100m individual medley time.
There was also success for the younger athletes in the team, with Martyn Walton, Callum Lawrie, Danielle Huskisson, Scott McLay and first year scholars Keanna MacInnes and Cassie Wild all winning titles.
Speaking after her gold medal winning performance in the 100m backstroke, Wild commented:
“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.”
Her teammate MacInnes also swam exceptionally well, recording a new record time in the 100m butterfly. Meanwhile McLay won a total of four medals, with a standout performance in the 50m butterfly seeing him break a 15 year-old national record which had previously been set by Stirling alumnus Todd Cooper.
Speaking after a confident performance across the weekend, McLay 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.”
Stirling’s relay team also enjoyed success, putting in a dominant performance to break national records in the 4 x 50m medley, 4 x 50m freestyle and 4 x 100m freestyle relay races.
After strong performances across the board, 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’.
Featured image credit: Scottish Swimming
