Billy medley joy as Warrender lad hits right note in Glasgow

WARRENDER'S Billy Purnell, who won titles for Scotland at the recent Slovenia Open Meet, continued his great from by winning the 400m individual medley on the final day of the Scottish Championships at Glasgow's Tollcross Leisure Centre.

Second in the 200m medley behind clubmate Lewis Smith on Friday, the 19-year-old went one better with a time of 4:28.80. Another Warrender swimmer, Andrew Haslett, took the silver in 4:31.63. In the 50m butterfly, Heart of Midlothian's Louise Pate, the winner of the 100m title, couldn't quite match the pace of French internationalist Camille Muffat (27.53). But the Edinburgh swimmer took silver in 28.33 and just pipped Warrender's Fiona Booth (28.69) for the Scottish National title.

Garioch's Hannah Miley ended a hectic programme and underlined her all-round ability by clinching two titles and breaking a Scottish record on the final day.

One of the few Scottish Olympians to support the championships, 18-year-old Miley had already won the 200m backstroke and 200m medley and she confirmed her preparations for Beijing are well on-course by adding the 200m breaststroke and the 1500m freestyle.

In the rarely swum 1500m, she powered her way to victory in 16:28.60 – which was over 20 seconds inside the Scottish record held by City of Edinburgh's Megan Gilchrist.

Miley has qualified for the 200m and 400m medley at the Olympics, and she is a genuine medal hope.

Coached by her father, Patrick, at the Garioch Club in Inverurie, and the bank of good results will now be followed by more serious competition at the ASA National Championships in Liverpool next month.

Robbie Renwick (City of Aberdeen) scored a great win in his Olympic event, the 200m freestyle. Second fastest qualifier, he turned the tables in the final buy holding off French internationalist Alain Bernard to win by 0.11 in 1:47.70. He was just 0.12 outside David Carry's Scottish record.

Andrew Hunter (Stirling), who has qualified for Beijing as part of the 200m freestyle relay squad, was fourth in 1:50.54.

Stirling's Todd Cooper, another of the ten Scots who have qualified for Beijing, finished third in the 100m butterfly. France's Chris Lebon won in 52.92 with Newcastle-based Scot Andrew Mayor in second place in 53.99. Cooper, a 200m specialist, was third in 54.77.