Edinburgh University swimmer Stephen Clegg capped off a memorable year, swimming superbly at the recent Scottish Winter Short Course Meet at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh over the weekend 10th – 12th December.
The Edinburgh based athlete experienced an extremely successful Paralympic Games earlier in the year, securing three medals in Tokyo (silver in 100m Fly, bronze in 100m backstroke & 100m freestyle) in the S12 classification – a class for swimmers with a visual impairment. While claiming three Paralympic medals at a single games is an exceptional achievement, Clegg was disappointed not to claim gold in the his ‘main’ event, the 100m Butterfly, having recorded a world record earlier in the year at the British Para Swimming International Meet (April 2021), bettering a record that had stood since 2013.
The 26-year-old continued his form from Tokyo going into the Winter Short Course Meet last weekend and made home advantage count as he recorded a truly outstanding series of results over the three days where he swam inside FIVE of world’s best times for an S12 athlete. The Edinburgh University man dipped under current world record times in the 100m Short Course (SC) Freestyle (51.46) and 50m SC Butterfly (24.98). The swimmer, coached by Chris Jones, then completed his hat trick of times lower than current WR’s on Saturday, completing the 50m Backstroke in 26.15 in both the heat and final. Sunday saw Clegg record his final times of the meet, bringing home the fastest times ever recorded for an S12 in the 100m Butterfly (55.37) and 100m Backstroke (57.32).
In addition to the thrilling performance over the weekend, the former Royal Blind School pupil, received well deserved recognition for his achievements as he was awarded the Jim Anderson Disability Swimmer of the Year for 2021 as part of the Scottish Swimming Annual Awards.
A memorable year for the former Lothian Racers and East Lothian Swim Team man, no doubt providing increased motivation to perform to the best of his ability at the next Paralympic Games in Paris 2024 and look to add gold to his collection of Paralympic medals. Great swimming Stephen.
You can follow Stephen on his social media
- Instagram – @stephen.clegg
- Twitter – @stephenclegg95