Strachan achieves Glasgow 2014 nomination time

SHETLAND swimmer Andrea Strachan moved a step closer to earning a place in the Scottish team for this summer’s Commonwealth Games at the weekend.

Strachan achieved the nomination time for the games in the 50 metre breaststroke event at the Scottish National Swimming Championships Sunday night.

Local swimming coach Peter Peturson explained that Strachan will now swim at the British Championships later this week.

“Andrea will be competing again in the 50m breaststroke and has to make sure that no Scot beats the time she set today,” he said.

“If no other Scot posts a faster time she will be nominated by Scottish Swimming to the Scottish Commonwealth Games Federation and that should be that.”

The Scottish championships were held at Toll Cross National Swimming Centre in Glasgow, which will be the swimming venue for the Glasgow 2014 games in July.

Strachan was only competing on the final day of the four-day championship. In the morning heats she finished third and was just a hundredth of a second away from the nomination time.

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After that she “felt good and it was good to do some racing”, while her coach Chris Jones said she would “definitely make the time” later in the day.

Peteruson described the evening final as “without doubt Andrea’s best performance to date”. She got off to a great start and was neck-and-neck with two fellow Edinburgh University swimmers.

Gold was won by her team mate Corrie Scott in a new Scottish record time and silver went to another team mate, Kathryn Johnstone, with Strachan narrowly touched out into third. All three managed to achieve the nomination time.

Strachan was one of the stars of Team Shetland at last summer’s NatWest Island Games in Bermuda – winning two gold and three silver medals.