2024 SCOTTISH NATIONAL OPEN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The final day of action at the 2024 Scottish National Open Swimming Championships unfolded last night with additional hardware on the line.
Keanna MacInnes of Stirling wasted no time making her presence known, with the 23-year-old Paris-bound athlete stopping the clock at 58.01 to take the women’s 100m fly.
MacInnes led a 1-2 Stirling punch, with teammate and 50m fly winner here Lucy Grieve coming into the wall in 58.78 as the only other sub-minute performer of the field.
Ciara Schlosshan of Edinburgh rounded out the podium in 1:00.51.
MacInnes and Grieve placed in the top 2 slots at this year’s British Olympic Trials, with MacInnes earning gold last April in 57.92 while Grieve posted 58.31. Both outings represented their best-ever performances.
After the race, MacInnes told Scottish Swimming, “I’m really, really surprised with that.
My boyfriend [Angus Allison] swam a 58.1 100 fly this morning and he said, ‘do you think you can go faster than that tonight?’ and I thought it wasn’t very likely, so I’m sure he’ll be a bit gutted about that!
“I definitely found that having Lucy next to me in the race pushed me on and there really is a friendly competitiveness there – Brad [Hay] is always joking around with it and it really pushes us both.
“I’m usually faster to 50 than Lucy but she catches up really strong so I knew I had to hold her off – I can’t believe how well that swim went to be fair!”
Edinburgh swept the women’s 50m breaststroke podium, led by national record holder Kara Hanlon.
Hanlon produced a mark of 30.96 to top the field, with Anna Morgan and Katie Goodburn following the 27-year-old. The former hit 31.82 for silver and the latter registered 32.11 as the bronze medalist.
Hanlon owns the Scottish standard at 30.50, a result she put on the books at the 2023 British Championships.
As for the men’s 50m breast, we reported how 23-year-old Archie Goodburn got it done for gold in 28.13, a remarkable feat just days after he revealed his inoperable brain tumor diagnosis.
Goodburn also raced the breaststroke leg on Edinburgh’s title-winning mixed 4x50m medley relay, hitting a split of 27.88.
You can see the race video as well as Goodburn’s post-race interview here:
Olympic qualifier Katie Shanahan registered one of two sub-2:10 swims in the women’s 200m backstroke final.
The 20-year-old Stirling standout punched a result of 2:08.86 to get the job done, beating teammate Holly McGill by nearly a second.
McGill posted 2:09.74 as the silver medalist and Stirling also captured bronze, courtesy of Caitlin Ebbage‘s time of 2:17.03.
Shanahan is the reigning Scottish national record holder in this women’s 2back, owning a lifetime best of 2:07.45 from the 2023 World Championships. At this year’s Olympic Trials, the 2022 European Championships silver medalist clocked 2:08.53 for her effort here was less than a second away from that result.
Additional Notes
- Michaella Glenister posted a time of 4:15.85 to win the women’s 400m free. George Smith topped the men’s edition in 3:51.20.
- The women’s 50m free saw Evelyn Davis score a mark of 26.10 for the gold. David Cumberlidge of Edinburgh produced 22.18, the sole effort of the pack under 23 seconds, to top the men’s podium.
- Jamie Robertson logged a result of 53.17 to win the men’s 100m fly. That was within striking distance of his best-ever outing of 53.06 put up at last year’s British Summer Championships.
