Scottish swimmers once again lit up Tollcross International Swimming Centre, with Erraid Davies winning Bronze in the Para-Sport 100m Breaststroke S9, Hannah Miley winning Bronze in the 200m Individual Medley and the 4x200m Freestyle Relay team wining Silver, bringing the medal tally from the pool up to nine.
Team Scotland’s youngest ever athlete, Erraid Davies, became the youngest ever medallist in Scotland’s Commonwealth Games history, after securing her Bronze medal. Shaving over four seconds off her personal best time in the heats, the 13 year old from Shetland was drawn alongside favourite Sophie Pascoe of New Zealand. Following a solid turn at the half way mark Davies began moving up the field, finishing strongly in another personal best time of 1:21.68, to take Bronze. Pascoe did indeed win Gold, and Madeleine Scott of Australia the Silver.
Following the race a near speechless Davies managed only a few words:
“I am really, really happy. I knew there were only seven of us in the event and while there was a chance, I didn’t really expect this. I came here wanting to do my best and I PB’d in both heat and final so that’s great.”
“I’ve been working hard on my starts and my turns for the past few weeks and that’s helped me a lot.”
In the very next race Hannah Miley showed her superb form, winning Bronze in the 200m Individual Medley. In an event she often says she struggles with, she swam a well-judged race, moving up a place with every turn. Lying in fourth at the final turn, Miley kicked hard on her freestyle leg over-taking her nearest rival to secure the medal, touching home in 2:10.74. England’s Siobhan O’Connor won Gold and Alicia Coutts of Australia the Silver.
Following the race, a jubilant Miley said:
“To be honest I thought the 400m Individual Medley was my only shot of a medal so I’m very surprised at getting a Bronze. You can tell by the grin on my face that I’m happy with that. It’s been an amazing meet and I don’t really know where that performance came from. I really thought I’d be outside the medals in 4th or 5th so to go one better than that and come away with some hardware is pretty special.
“After the 400m Individual Medley I wasn’t really targeting medals for the rest of the meet. I knew I would race hard but realistically I didn’t think I would be up there.
“I’m taking every race as an opportunity to step up, swim fast, get into finals and PB, that was what my goal was after Thursday. I’m physically in the best shape I’ve ever been and I’m taking advantage of that and really pushing hard. It showed in the 200m Breaststroke yesterday and it showed there.”
The final medal of the night was secured by the 4x200m Freestyle Relay squad of Dan Wallace, Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott and Robbie Renwick, all of whom swam superbly to claim Silver in a time of 7:09.18. Australia won in a Games record time of 7:07.38, with South Africa settling for Bronze in 7:10.36.
Following the race Robbie Renwick said:
“That’s my third Silver medal in this event after Melbourne and Delhi so I can’t complain. It was a fantastic effort from the boys; they set me up brilliantly for the final leg. I’m chuffed to bits and really proud.”
“We all swam a lot faster than we expected and we all knew we had a medal in us. We just didn’t know what colour that medal would be” added 17-year old Duncan Scott.
Stephen Milne added, “We knew the crowd would be behind us and we just wanted to do our best and raise our game. I think we delivered today.
Lead-off man, Dan Wallace, finished by saying, “I knew I wanted to put in a good performance. I’m very proud of all four of us right now.”
In other events, Katie Armitage, progressed through to tomorrow’s final of the 100m Breaststroke, while Corrie Scott and Kathryn Johnstone finished in 9th and 14th place respectively.
Mark Tully, Ross Murdoch and Joe Welstead will also be back in action with all three progressing to the final of the 50m Breaststroke.
Photo Credit: Ian MacNicol