Freya Anderson completes Glasgow gold double with 200m freestyle victory
By PA Media
Last Updated: 07/12/19 11:26pm
Great Britain's Freya Anderson completed a freestyle double with victory in the 200m at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Glasgow.
The 18-year-old Sky Sports Scholar, who secured her maiden individual medal at this level and a European title with an impressive victory in the 100m freestyle on Friday, clocked a new national record of 1:52.77 in the 200m final.
That was 0.11 of a second quicker than Italy's Federica Pellegrini, with Holland's Femke Heemskerk taking bronze.
Anderson added a silver medal to her haul in the last event of the evening when she teamed up with Duncan Scott, Scott McLay and Anna Hopkin in the 4x50m freestyle final.
The British quartet finished 0.33secs behind gold medal winners Russia.
Ex-scholar Siobhan-Marie O'Connor claimed bronze for Britain in the 200m individual medley to make up for narrowly missing out on a medal in the 100m on Friday, while Duncan Scott and Joe Litchfield both progressed to the final of the men's 100m individual medley.
There was disappointment for Scottish swimmer Ross Murdoch as he failed to win a medal in the 100m breaststroke final, finishing eighth in 57.07.
Anderson told British Swimming's official website: "It's just amazing - I really didn't expect it. Even when I touched the wall and looked around I saw the one by my name I was like 'what!?'.
"I'm really happy with how I managed to pace my race and come back hard on the last 50m.
"I knew how a few of the others would swim it and thought if I could be with them at around the 150m mark I could make my move. It's a tactical race the 200m free so I had to keep looking around whilst also focusing on my own race.
"I've never been good at short course and I've been working on my turns and skills for years, so to finally see it paying off is really rewarding.
"The crowd were amazing and even when I finished and looked up everyone was just so happy, it was really nice to see that.
"I saw my parents in the crowd, they weren't here yesterday, so today it was amazing to see them up there."
