HANNAH MILEY produced a impressive swim to retain her British title in her specialist event, the 400m individual medley, in Edinburgh last night but she was pipped to first place by her old rival, Mireia Belmonte from Spain.
This year, the Edinburgh International Swim Meet is doubling-up as the British Championships and the very best of Britain’s swimmers are in the capital for the four days of competition, as well as a number of the world’s top swimmers.
The 400m IM was the highlight of day one, with Miley against Belmonte, who is a current world and Olympic champion, one of the most eye-catching head-to-heads of the first evening.
The pair have previous, with the Spanish swimmer pipping the Garioch native to bronze in the 400m IM at the Rio Olympics and last night saw a repeat result, with Belmonte touching in 4 minutes 38.68 seconds, just 0.23 seconds ahead of Miley.
Miley, who is targeting the Commonwealth Games this year where she will attempt to win her third consecutive gold medal, was upbeat about her performance. “I’m happy and tired,” the 28-year-old said.
“It was go hard or go home in that race really.”
Miley has a busy few days ahead of her, with another eight events on the cards but one of the hardest working swimmers in the country is not fazed by her hectic schedule. “I’m looking forward to getting some good head-to-head racing,” she said.
“I’m probably going to get my butt kicked a few times because I’m not the most fresh coming into this meet but it’s really exciting. I’m looking forward to getting some good, solid swims in.”
There was a surprise winner in the 50m backstroke, with 21-year-old Lucy Hope of Edinburgh University becoming British champion, just ahead of her fellow Scot and European Championship medallist, Kathleen Dawson.
There was an upset in the men’s 100m freestyle, with University of Stirling’s Duncan Scott the heavy favourite going into the race, beaten into third place.
Scott is the reigning British champion and the current British record holder but he could manage only bronze last night with a time of 50.07 seconds, 0.28 of a second behind gold medal-winner England’s Lewis Burras, with David Cumberlidge second. Scott’s compatriots, Stephen Milne of Perth City finished in fourth place, with Craig McLean in eighth.
Today will see World, Olympic European and Commonwealth champion Adam Peaty in action for the first time. He will race the 200m breaststroke,where he will be up against Commonwealth champion Ross Murdoch as well as Craig Benson, both of University of Stirling,
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