Luma Lanes Performance of the Week: Duncan Scott Sets British And Commonwealth 400IM Record Of 4:09.18; Faster Than Tokyo Gold

18th April 2021, London Aquatics Centre, London, England ; 2021 British Swimming Selection Trials

Duncan Scott: Photo Courtesy: Georgie Kerr, British Swimming

Performance of the Week, Sponsored by Luma Lanes

Duncan Scott set a British and Commonwealth 400IM record of 4:09.18 at the British Championships in a time that would have won gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Chase Kalisz claimed the Olympic title last July in 4:09.42 and Scott’s excellence in a range of events spanning the 100 free to long medley makes him one of the most versatile current swimmers.

It also propelled the Scot to the top of the rankings ahead of Frenchman Leon Marchand and his 4:10.38.

Scott led throughout to take 0.09 off Brendon Smith’s Commonwealth record of 4:09.27 from Tokyo as well as cutting 0.44 from the national mark of 4:09.62 set by Max Litchfield at the 2017 World Championships.

Litchfield is not competing in Sheffield but is instead training with Chad le Clos in South Africa having been preselected following his fourth place in Tokyo.

It was well within the cut for the World Championships in Budapest with the six-time Olympic medallist also selected to the 200IM following his Olympic silver.

Splits: 56.77/1:59.97/3:11.92 before reaching the 350 mark in 3:40.94 and coming home with a 28.24 blast.

Scott said:

“Still learning the event a lot but I am obviously delighted with that time.

“I love watching Max do that every year – he is an incredible athlete and the times he is able to do consistently each year around that 4:10 barrier is incredible so I am so delighted to get that off him.

“I’ll look back and I’m sure there’s many areas for me to improve on but I am really happy with that.”

Scott now holds three British individual records adding the longer medley to the 200IM (1:55.28) and 100 free (47.87) – although Lewis Burras came within 0.01 of the latter in the final event of the Thursday programme.

Of how he felt about adding another one to his collection, Scott joked before Burras’ world-leading blast:

“That’s because people keep taking them off me! I hope my 100 free stays tonight! That was an added incentive of me getting the 4IM was can I get one taken off me tonight?

“I guess that’s why they’re there and its good to see them keep going in different events all the time.

“I guess it shows the depth that we’ve got in Britain – that there are so many people close to all the British records which is great.”

The University of Stirling swimmer withdrew from the 100 free in order to focus on the 400IM.

Scott is defending Commonwealth champion over two lengths and he insisted he was not turning his back on the event, saying:

“This is one year in my whole career – I think I can do one long-course meet where I focus on the 400IM.

“I am not coming out of that event for anything.”

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