Swimming: Hannah Miley on song with seven-medal haul

By Elspeth Burnside
Published on 02/07/2012 00:07

IN THE final push towards the Olympics, Hannah Miley wanted to do some fine-tuning at the Scottish Gas National Open Championships at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

Six gold and one silver medal from four days of competition showed she is set to hit perfect pitch in London in just over three weeks’ time.

The Commonwealth Games and European Champion in the 400m individual medley, Miley completed her trophy haul on the final day with a victory in the 200m breaststroke in 2:34.87. She was pipped for gold by Lucy Ellis in the 100m freestyle – but was delighted with a PB of 56.94.

“I’m so pleased I chose to come to the championships,” said Inverurie’s World Championship silver medallist.

“This was my final chance to race before the Olympics so it was important. I know that all my times are better than my Dad [her coach Patrick] expected. Now I have some more hard work and then I’m looking forward to coming back to the Commonwealth Pool in a couple of weeks for the Team GB holding camp.”

Ellis, 19, who was unlucky to miss out on an Olympic spot in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay, won the 100m freestyle in 56.71. Jak Scott, another Stirling swimmer to miss out on the 4 x 200m relay at the Olympics, claimed his second gold of the Championships with a time of 1:48.00 in the 200m freestyle.

Warrender’s Lewis Smith won the 400m individual medley in 4:20.02 and his clubmate, Craig McNally, also started to get over the disappointment of missing out on the Olympics with a final day gold, winning the 50m in 26.55. The 19-year-old made the time for London 2012 in the 200m backstroke at last month’s final trials but failed to clinch one of the two places by 0.1 secs to Wales’ Marco Loughran.