Day 1

June 23rd

After a morning of heats the men’s junior swimmers make it through to the finals for the 4 x 100 Freestyle. They were seeded 5th after the morning heats.

Alloa lad Duncan Scott the only Scottish swimming member of team GB swam the first leg and led from the first 50m. The boys never looked back. Martin Walton also swam under 50 seconds to maintain the lead. The Russians were always at their heals but third swimmer Speers kept his head and led before handing to Cameron Kurle who fought for home in a games record at the inaugural European Games.

This is only day one and the British Team has 3 Golds in their bag.

Day 2

June 24th

Heats for the 100 Freestyle. Duncan, (GB 18 and under record holder) swam the heats to be the fastest seed for the semifinals. He swam sub 50 seconds in the semifinals to be seeded second for the final.

That night he swam another 100m as the lead in the 4 x 100 mixed freestyle team. A superbly tactical race with the 2 boys swimming first followed by the girls. The team secured Silver. Duncan’s second medal of the games.

Originally Duncan was entered for the 200 Individual Medleys. An event that he has regularly medaled in at European level. However only the women’s 200 Butterfly was between the 100 Free final and the 200 IM final. The decision was to focus on the Free, in preparation for Kazan

Day 3

June 25th

Heats in the morning had Duncan swim the first leg of the 4 x 200 freestyle relay. They secured their slot for the finals in second place. Duncan’s energy was for his 100 free final. He came to Baku as the favourite, would he bag gold? At the first 50 he turned third and fought home for gold. 49.43 Another games record.

An hour and a half later he was in the water again for the 4 x 200. Duncan, followed by Martin Walton, Kyle Chisholm finally Cameron Kurle. The Russians were very strong, 7/100 of a second away from a junior world record; Team GB came home with a great time for the silver.

This is the event that Duncan swam third leg for Scotland when they won silver at the Commonwealth Games, a time that left them 5th in the world at the end of the 2014 season.
Duncan finished the day being the most decorated athlete for Team GB at the Baku Games. He still had 2 races to go!

Day 4

June 26th

Heats in the morning for the 200 Freestyle. Duncan has a personal best of 1.48.25 so again was the favourite. He swam a great 1.49.39 to be second seed for the semis.

Back in the evening he swam a 1.50.11 to be placed 4th for the finals. Stepanov the Russian had won both the heats and the semis. He was now the top seed.

Day 5

June 27th

The morning heats had team GB in the 2 x 100 Medley relay. They qualified for the finals as 4th seed.

Duncan returned to the pool for the last finals. He dived in and led from the start. Commentators, having seen him swim the 100 thought he was going to die in the final 100. None of it. He swam a convincing 1.48.55 with Team mate Cameron Kurle in silver. Stepanov was a full second behind.

Duncan now had 3 Golds and 2 Silvers

The 4 x 100 relay set off. Duncan swam third leg with the 100 Butterfly. His split would have had him medal at the games. Such is his talent. They swam so well and came home with Silver.

Duncan flies home with 3 Golds and 6 Silvers and 6 carpets. Back to training to prepare for the worlds with University of Stirling team mates Robbie Renwick and Ross Murdoch. Of the 25 athletes going six are Scotts (joined by Stephen Milne, Hannah Milley and Dan Wallace) with 5 coached here in Scotland.