World Champion !, 12 Apr 2008

Gilchrist on Top of the World
11/04/2008

Scotland’s Kris Gilchrist powered his way to gold on Day 3 of the 9th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), Manchester 2008.

Timing his race to perfection, City of Edinburgh’s Gilchrist turned in the lead at the 100m mark and eased away from nearest rival Igor Borysik of Ukraine. Borysik came back during the last 15 metres and the two athletes were shoulder to shoulder coming into the wall.

There was a sharp in take of breath from the crowd, which quickly turned to loud cheers when the scoreboard showed that Gilchrist had indeed held on to take his first World title in a time of 2:06.18. Borysik took silver in 2:06.21 while bronze going to William Diering of South Africa.

Speaking to the BBC after the race, Gilchrist was clearly delighted, he said,

“That didn’t really pan out how I was expecting it to. I was expecting the Ukrainian guy (Borysik) to go out a lot faster, like he did when he won the 100m yesterday.

Commenting on the crowd and how close the race was, he said,

“I could tell from the crowds’ reaction that he was catching up with me during the last 25m. I heard a big ‘ooohhh’ when I touched the wall and I thought I’d blown it, but then I heard the crowd go mad and only then did I know the result.

When asked about his coach Gilchrist continued:

“We’ve been doing loads of land work, especially core body work, which helps us streamline our body position in the water.

“It’s great working with Fred (Vergnoux) he really mixes it up a lot and keeps the training interesting.”