Commonwealth Games: Miley focused on next race

HANNAH Miley was still suffering from her glorious but gruelling Commonwealth Games gold medal win on Thursday night as she battled to qualify for the women’s 200 metres breaststroke final at the Tollcross Swimming Centre.

Hannah Miley on Thursday as she raced to gold in the pool. Picture: Andrew O'Brien

The Scot touched the wall first in the 400m individual medley on day one of the Games in Glasgow to the roars of the home crowd and will have another chance at a medal tonight after clocking two minutes 28.22 seconds when finishing third in her heat as England’s Molly Renshaw turned out the second-fastest time among the qualifiers of 2:25.75.

• Live updates: follow the Glasgow 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games as they happen

Afterwards Miley, seventh fastest out of eight, admitted the excitement and emotion of winning gold had left her drained.

She said: “I was shot. I was completely knackered. It has been a whirlwind.

“It has gone so quick. I haven’t had the time to reflect but I am really happy with the way things are going.

“However, I am aware that I have a job at hand with the rest of my races, the competition isn’t finished yet so I have to keep myself in a bubble and try not to get too excited.

“I got through to the final, I went in ranked 10th so to make the final was going to be pretty tough and now that I have, it is a huge bonus.

“The next couple of races is about trying to make finals and progress with personal bests.

“That time was a season’s best, I think, so I am really happy with that and hope to make it into a PB for the final so we will see how that goes.

“It is about staying relaxed, enjoying the racing, enjoying the crowd.

“The hard work was done on day one so now it is trying to take every opportunity I have to progress.

“I get to enjoy myself after next Tuesday.”

Renshaw said: “I just wanted to get out and do a good swim. Hopefully that will get me a good lane in the final.”

England’s Francesca Halsall set a Games and British record with a time of 25.64 in qualifying for the semi-final of the women’s 50m butterfly, which left her “a bit surprised”.

“I was trying to keep it low-key as I have other stuff to do tonight, the main thing is the 50m freestyle,” she said.

“For some reason being relaxed at butterfly helps a lot, it is hard when you are too tense.

“So the fact that I was chilled out and relaxed actually helped a lot so I am happy with that.”

Fellow countrywomen Amy Smith and Rachel Kelly also qualified as did Scotland’s Sian Harkins and Alys Thomas of Wales.

Earlier, Scotland’s Cameron Brodie went clear in the second heat of the men’s 200m butterfly at the halfway mark and retained his lead to win in the fastest qualifying time of 1:57.28.

Roberto Pavoni of England also made it into tonight’s final as last of the eight qualifiers.

In the heats of the men’s 50m backstroke, England’s Chris Walker-Hebborn was fastest qualifier for tonight’s semi-finals with a time of 25.12.

Adam Brown’s time of 49.60 in his men’s 100m freestyle heat was the third quickest of the morning and put the Englishman through to the semi-finals.

At the end of the morning’s session, England, Scotland and Wales qualified for the finals of the women’s 4x200m freestyle final.