Keri-anne Payne gains in Edinburgh

Keri-anne Payne admitted she hadn’t done much training since the London Olympics, but the world open water champion still managed to complete an impressive double on her debut at the Scottish Gas National Open Short Course Championships at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

Despite having trained “not a huge amount” since moving to Edinburgh following her September marriage to Scotland’s former Commonwealth Games champion, David Carry, the new Warrender star claimed the 400m freestyle in 4:10.89. “It’s good to be back in the water and competing again,” said Payne, who won the 800m on Friday and could make it a hat-trick in the 200m freestyle tonight. Charlotte McKenzie completed an impressive backstroke double with victory in the 200m.

Lewis Smith was gutted to miss out on the London Olympics, but a winning 1:59.21 in the 200m butterfly confirmed the Warrender 24-year-old remains on course for a second Commonwealth Games in 2014. Emily Jones (Aberdeen) claimed her first senior Scottish title in the 100m butterfly, while Aberdeen 15-year-old Suleman Butt continued his great run with a third British junior record of the Championships. The 15-year-old clocked 50.45 in the heats of the 100m freestyle, breaking the mark set by Mark Foster in 1986.