Swimming: Payne quick off mark with freestyle win

ENGLAND’S Keri-Anne Payne hasn’t taken long to settle into her new surroundings. Just weeks after a move to Edinburgh, the double Olympian won the 800m freestyle on the opening evening of the Scottish Gas National Open Short Course Championships at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

World champion in open water swimming, the 25-year-old married fellow-Olympian, David Carry, in September and the pair are now settled in Edinburgh. Carry, Scotland’s double Commonwealth Games champion from 2006, has retired from swimming and is now working for Red Sky Sports Management, but Payne is ploughing on as a serious competitor, training with the Warrender Club and with an eye on the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Unfortunately, there will be no open water event on the Glasgow programme but Payne proved she is a threat in the confines of the pool with an 8:34.78 time in the 800m final, finishing just over a second ahead of Edinburgh University’s Sian Morgan. Payne also lined up in the 200m individual medley final, but only finished seventh (2:18.99) as post-London rustiness caught up with her in an event won by Sheffield’s Lucy Spencer (2:11.49) ahead of Aberdeen’s Emily Jones (2:12.08).

Two Scottish records fell. Falkirk’s Charlotte McKenzie, who is still at Larbert High School, won the 50m backstroke in 27.95 to set new national senior and junior marks, while Mark Tully (East Lothian) took the men’s 50m breaststroke gold in a senior best of 27.38. In the same event, Daniel Lim (Warrender) set a Scottish junior record of 29.41. In a close 50m freestyle, the top two places went to Edinburgh University swimmers. Richard Shafers took the title in 22.33 and Kieran McGukin was second in 22.48. In the morning heats, Aberdeen’s 15-year-old Suleman Butt set a British junior record of 23.20.

Another in-form youngster was Craig Bowman as he broke the Scottish junior record with a time of 54.91 in finishing fourth behind his Carnegie training mate, Mark Szaranek (53.01). Szaranek was the evening’s double winner as he also took the 100m medley in 55.11.

Caitlin McClatchey, the Scottish three-time Olympian who has just relocated to Edinburgh from Loughborough, pulled out of the individual 100m freestyle. But she did take a gold medal competing for Edinburgh University A in the 4x200m medley relay. The A squad was completed by Sarah Eaglesham, who won the 100m freestyle in McClatchey’s absence, Scott and Johnstone and they took the title in 1:53.30 – a new Scottish record.

DUNLOP ROLE

SCOTTISH Swimming has named Forbes Dunlop as its new chief executive officer. He will take up his role on 1 March 2013. Dunlop swum for Scotland on many occasions during the 1990s. He has also taught, coached and tutored swimming coach education courses and was part of the team that helped secure the National Swimming Academy at the University of Stirling as one of British Swimming’s Intensive Training Centres.