Commonwealth Games: Duncan Scott takes aim at shooter's record and hits target

Once Duncan Scott took aim at a renowned shooter, it hardly seemed likely that he would miss his target. Not for a second time.

This unobtrusively astonishing 25-year-old swimmer only needed to clamber on to the podium once on Monday evening to match Alister Allan's record of 10 Commonwealth Games medals. But he did it twice for good measure.

Fatigue, unfriendly scheduling, and a touch of over-ambition combined to thwart Scott 24 hours early, as a brutal day of 200m butterfly and 100m freestyle duelling left him spent and without the familiar feeling of ribbon round his neck.

Little wonder the Olympic medallist was in waspish mood afterwards when asked his thoughts on Allan's mark. He wasn't the one counting, he retorted sharply.

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So was he counting on Monday after emerging from a ferocious 100m freestyle scrap with his sixth Games bronze? "You're still the one doing that..." he said, this time flashing a smile.

And what about after an astonishing final leg of the 4 x 200m freestyle, a relay in which Scott plunged in for the final leg with Scotland trailing in fifth place?

His determination to let his team-mates - Stephen Milne, Evan Jones and Mark Szaranek - enjoy the spotlight prevented the question being asked.

But the truth is Scott was so far behind he might as well have been in another pool before he somehow overhauled the Welsh and South Africans. His time? Half a second faster than his mark to win individual gold.

"We just gave Duncan the chance to fly on the end," said Szaranek. "He's got 11 medals so far. He's not done..."

Ominous words for Allan to hear, even if the fact he has three golds to Scott's two might be some small consolation. But the 78-year-old - who accumulated his medals between 1974 and 1994 - might even suffer the larceny of having that quietly stolen away from him.

Scott will come back here on Wednesday with the sniff of more success in his nostrils. The 200m IM and even the 4 x 100m medley relay could buttress his new record haul.

"I've got more chances to come, so I need to stay focused," said the six-time Olympic medallist, emboldened both by his return to the podium and the knowledge that he need not leave his scratcher on Tuesday unless he especially wants to.

That said, there's every chance Scott will be here to watch his Scotland team-mates. That's how this squad is.

Having emerged after his first medal, he stopped poolside to watch Katie Shanahan claim a surprise second bronze of these Games and Scotland's first ever in the women's 200m backstroke.

The 18-year-old, who won Scotland's first medal in the pool in Friday's 400m IM, finished ferociously to earn a second podium place - success that Scott himself described as "contagious".

"I'm just in shock. I can't believe I've just gone and done that," Shanahan told BBC Sport Scotland.

"I didn't think I'd get a medal. I came in just hoping to make a few finals and have a bit of fun, so to come away with two bronzes... this team just makes me want to swim faster for them."

Shanahan will likely have other days like this in Commonwealth Games. But for now, it is Scott who is setting the standard.