Ben Proud claimed Great Britain’s third medal of the LEN European Short Course Championships after he took silver in the Men’s 50m freestyle in Copenhagen.
Proud secured his silver in a new personal best time of 20.66. Gold went to Russia’s Vladimir Morozov in a new Championship Record of 20.31 and the bronze was taken by Luca Dotto of Italy.
He said:“Another best time, another British record so I’m very, very happy. Obviously there’s more to learn and more ways to improve but it’s good to come here and race really fast guys.
"It puts things into perspective so I
can try and learn, adapt and hopefully move on with my long course season.
“The Commonwealth Games are next for me – that’s a big competition, it really means a lot. I want to be able to try and retain the two titles I got in 2014 and I feel in a much better place than four years ago so I think it’s going to be a good season.”
Earlier in the day, a controlled heats swim saw Proud progress comfortably into the semi-finals as the second fastest qualifier. He then posted a time of 20.70 to lower his personal best during the semi-finals and reserved his final berth.
The Men’s 100m Breaststroke semi-finals saw two brits in action as both Adam Peaty and Ross Murdoch took to the water and booked themselves into Saturday evening’s title decider.
Peaty shaved time of his personal best and posted a new Championship record of 56.24 in the opening semi, only for it to be broken again in SF2 with a new European record of 56.02 recorded.
After the race, Peaty said, “It was a nice processed swim, I wasn’t looking to go out there and do something special – a little bit faster than this morning, which it was. I’m glad to see the Russian guy get through so nice competition for tomorrow. But as I said earlier they take this competition a lot more seriously than we do. I still haven’t shaved my beard! I’m looking forward to it."
He returns as the second fastest man for tomorrow’s final and added, “It’s always good that teammates carry each other – he [Ross Murdoch] carries me sometimes, sometimes I carry him. So hopefully it will be a good final.”
Murdoch also produced a positive semi-final swim that saw him set a new personal best of 57.55 and goes into the final seventh fastest.
“I’m delighted to be in the final – this is my first evening swim. I’ve struggled during the week.
“I’ve come here for one thing, to get in the arena and practice my race craft and I’ve not really had the opportunity to swim under the lights this week. I’ve done it tonight and I’ve pulled myself through into a final tomorrow night.”
Kathryn Greenslade delivered an impressive finals swim as she made her senior international competition debut, she ranked fourth overall in the Women’s 200m backstroke. Charlotte Atkinson finished fifth in the Women’s 200m butterfly after eight controlled laps of the Royal Arena pool.
Also in action on day three of the championships for Great Britain was Newcastle-based Emily Large, she went in the Women’s 200m butterfly and placed 11th in the rankings after the morning heats session.
Duncan Scott was back racing after his 200m freestyle bronze but just missed out on a berth in the Men’s 200m IM final.For full results from the LEN SC Championships click here
To watch the action live from Copenhagen click here