News

Lewis Smith lowered the Scottish record for the 400m Individual Medley for the second time in a day as he recorded a time of 4:10.70 to place 8th in the final at the European Short Course Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.  The time was 0.18 faster than he swam in the heats, with his pacing over each 50m being almost identical throughout. 

Smith had hoped to go a little bit faster but was nevertheless still delighted with his fourth career best time in as many swims in the last 36 hours.  He commented, "My target for the 400 I.M. coming into the meet was to make the final, I achieved that but set a new Scottish Senior record as well so I was particularly happy.  This was my first final at senior international level and it has given me a lot of confidence as I head into 2008 and the Olympic Trials in April.  I did not shave down or fully taper for this meet, so to set personal bests and be competitive in the final against swimmers who were all fully rested gives me a real boost to know that my preparations for 2008 are well on track."

Warrender Head Coach Ian Wright was on poolside in Hungary as part of the GB coaching team to monitor Smith's progress.  Wright was also pleased with the outcome, "Lewis has done a great job so far at this meet.  He will not fully peak until the Olympic Trials in April but the results here show us that the training programme has being going as planned so far this season.  He is in very good physical condition but lacking raw speed just now so he will be adding that into his daily workouts in the coming weeks.  I am especially pleased that Lewis has shown here that he has successfully made the transition from youth to senior level and used the benefits of his previous experiences to great effect."