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Scottish Championships - Day 2 Report

Jun 23, 2001  - Anita Lonsbrough

Graeme Smith the 1996 Olympic bronze medallist, is still in hard training for next month's World Championships and covered ninety thousand metres in training this week but still managed to lower his British record for the 800m freestyle. His time of 7:57.83, 1.01 inside the time he set at the beginning of the month.

The twenty-five year old, injected some extra pace with 200m to go to put himself on schedule for a personal best and even managed to sprint the final length to confirm he's back to his best.

Following his Olympic success Smith failed to find his form and admits "I'd rather forget the last four or five years" but added "thanks to his friends and family who have been very supportive" he's back to his Olympic medal winning form and looking forward to next month's World Championships.

Twenty-one year old Sarah Price shaved two hundredths off her own British record for the 50m backstroke. She made sure of victory by getting the best start and keeping the rest of the field at bay. Her time of 29.33 was 0.54 ahead of Joanna Fargus the 200m British record holder.

Edinburgh's Gregor Tait made it a backstroke record double when he lowered his own Scottish record in the men's 50m backstroke. But as in the 200m the previous evening his time was just 0.25sec off the World Championship qualifying time.

Records and qualifying times eluded Britain's world class 200m butterfly men. James Hickman the Commonwealth champion, and Olympic finalist Stephen Parry had a great duel over the four lengths but neither could find their best.

Hickman edged out his rival by three quarters of a second to record 1:58.53. This was 1.04 outside the qualification time. Both were bitterly disappointed with their form but Hickman expressed their thoughts promising to be back next year.