Lottie Cullen and Grace Davison returned to the pool tonight for the Women’s 200m Backstroke final, racing alongside two of Scotland’s favourites, Holly McGill and Katie Shanahan, in what proved to be a fantastic race. Grace Davison finished 7th, touching in 2:12.25 — just 0.01 seconds slower than her heat time — while Lottie Cullen was marginally outside her morning heat time, finishing in 2:13.91.
Attention then turned to the Men’s 50m Backstroke, where Conor Ferguson took lane 7 in semi-final 1 alongside Scotland’s Matthew Ward in lane 6. In a blisteringly fast semi-final won by Ruard van Renen (RSA), Ferguson placed 8th in his heat with a time of 25.85. Paddy Johnston followed shortly after in semi-final 2, also racing from lane 7, and in another stacked field won by Peter Coetze (RSA) he placed 8th in his heat, clocking 25.63; overall, Johnston finished 15th and Ferguson 16th.
In the Women’s 50m Butterfly, Alana Burns-Atkin competed in semi-final 1, improving on her morning heat time with a swim of 27.52 — 0.15 seconds faster — a result that places her 15th overall across the Commonwealth.
There was strong form too in the Men’s S10 100m Butterfly, where Barry McClements followed a brilliant heat swim this morning by qualifying for tonight’s final; in an action-packed race he went out strong over the first 50m in 28.67, coming home to touch in 1:01.64, a 0.3 second improvement on his morning heat, placing him 5th overall.
The evening closed out with the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay, where the quartet of Grace Davison, Emily Hughes, Victoria Catterson and Danielle Hill swam for Team NI from lane 7. Davison led off with a time of 55.23, followed by Catterson (55.25), Hughes (55.99) and Hill (54.92), with the team finishing 6th overall, marginally behind Team Wales.
Team NI are back in action tomorrow morning for Day 2 heats at Tollcross International Swimming Centre.