20 August 2014

Jo Atkinson

SCOTLAND’S Ross Murdoch added another medal to his collection as he grabbed 100 metre breaststroke silver in a British one-two at the European Championships in Berlin.

Yesterday proved to be a profitable one for the Great Britain team with a plethora of medals. Chris Walker-Hebborn staged a late surge to win 100m backstroke gold. The 24 year old overhauled 2011 world champion Jeremy Stravius and Germany’s Jan-Philip Glania in the final metres to claim victory in a time of 53.32 seconds.

His win capped a glorious month for the University of Bath athlete who had also won 100m backstroke gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Teenager Adam Peaty also grabbed gold as he pipped team-mate Murdoch for the 100m breaststroke title. Peaty – who, like Walker-Hebborn, had also won gold in the same event in Glasgow – touched home in 58.96 seconds with Commonwealth bronze medallist Murdoch settling for silver 0.47 seconds behind. The Scot took gold in the longer 200m event in Glasgow last month.

There was also a silver medal for Lizzie Simmonds in the women’s 200m backstroke and bronze for Fran Halsall in the 50m butterfly.

Ben Proud also picked up a bronze medal in the men’s 50m butterfly after dramatically dead-heating for third place with Andriy Govorov of Ukraine, with both swimmers recording an identical time of 23.31 seconds. The success did not stop for Britain as the mixed 4x100m medley team broke the world record to claim a third gold medal in the final race of the evening.

The team of Walker-Hebborn, Peaty, Jemma Lowe and Halsall came home in 3:44.02 to break the previous record set by Australia in January by 2.5secs.

Netherlands were 1.91secs behind in claiming silver with Russia taking bronze. Earlier in the evening, Adam Barrett finished seventh in the men’s 50m butterfly while Roberto Pavoni qualified for today’s 200m medley final.

Meanwhile, Duncan Scott admitted he had to pinch himself in amazement after the Glasgow swimmer claimed gold at the Youth Olympic Games.

In the first two days of competition, Duncan had found the going tough in Nanjing with a fourth-place finish in the men’s 200m freestyle final on Monday and failing to qualify for the 200m individual medley showpiece that same day.

But just 24 hours later the 17-year-old was climbing the top step of the podium after helping Team GB win men’s 4x100m freestyle relay gold.

The Team GB quartet of Scott, Luke Greenbank, Martyn Walton and Miles Munro led from start to finish to touch home in 3:21.19 minutes.

Grangemouth Amateur Swimming Club starlet Scott admitted he was lost for words after becoming a Youth Olympic champion. “I am so happy that we have won the gold medal and I can’t quite believe it to be honest,” said Scott, who swam the first leg. “We knew we had a chance going into it as Great Britain won the same gold at the European Junior Championships earlier in the year.”

• The British Olympic Association prepares and leads British athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. It works in partnership with sport National Governing Bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic Values.

Read the original article at the Scotsman website.