Commonwealth Games: Duncan Scott admits schedule took its toll as Ross Murdoch looks ahead to next medal tilt

Duncan Scott is racing the schedule of a mad man at Birmingham 2022 but with an end goal of Paris in mind.

After Saturday’s 200m freestyle gold and 400m individual medley bronze, he was back in action at Sandwell Aquatics Centre, missing out on the medals in the 200m butterfly before booking a place in the 100m freestyle final.

Even a swimmer as gifted as Scott has to tire eventually, and he admitted that the sheer number of metres had taken their toll. But when it comes to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, that workload should pay off.

He said: “The 100 free, it was pretty tough. I’m not going to lie, there wasn’t much speed there so I had to work pretty hard all in there and it wasn’t great. It’s similar to what I went to in the semi four years ago so I’m confident I can drop quite big in that. I just need to rest up, I’ve got a morning off which will be nice.

“It’s probably because I’ve done the 1200m of racing yesterday, then 300m this morning and then another 200m there. All of that is going to take speed away. It’s really difficult. I’ve never done a first day like that, so it’s a good challenge. It means for Worlds and Olympics, I feel like my schedule’s pretty easy. I think it’ll be good for the future.”

Scott had to settle for fifth in the 200m butterfly, 12 hundredths behind good friend James Guy in bronze, while he qualified sixth fastest in the freestyle, setting up another date with rival Tom Dean on Monday, with Scott having won their first battle over 200m freestyle.

The biggest shock of the night was still to come however, triple Olympic champion Adam Peaty beaten over 100m breaststroke for the first time in a major final in his senior career.

A broken foot had put his participation in these Games in jeopardy,