Hannah Miley: Big day has arrived and it is time to make Olympic selection a reality

THIS is a day that has been etched on my mind for a long, long time. I’m at the new Aquatics Centre in London and, all being well, then come this evening and I will have qualified for selection for the Olympic Games in London.

The Olympic trials start this morning and my main event – the 400m individual medley – is fourth on the schedule. Even if you are fastest on paper you know that the competition is going to be very tough. I have the heats in the morning and then the final tonight.

This is a day that I have been building towards for so long and it is a bit of a relief and also so exciting that it has finally arrived. I had my last training session at Inverurie on Wednesday morning and then flew down to London in the afternoon and it’s great to be here.

I am going for my seventh straight British 400m individual medley title but there are always new faces and younger swimmers coming through and every big meet such as this is a huge challenge. I know it isn’t going to be easy, but I feel ready.

One of the aspects I love about the medley is that everyone’s race plan is slightly different. Today, mine is to swim fast and enjoy the head to head battle. I love racing.

Obviously, there will be nerves. But I know I have put in the work with my Dad (coach Patrick) and, hopefully, today is another step towards the dream of the London Olympics.

The fact that the trials are the first swimming event in the Olympic Pool is a huge motivation. The event has been sold out for months and it will give all the GB swimmers a taste of the atmosphere before the Olympics.

It will also help when (hopefully!) I return for the Games at the end of July. Just knowing where everything is and how everything works at a pool is like having a comfort blanket.

When I went to Beijing for my first Olympics there was the huge excitement of everything being so new. But that also saps the energy. This time, everything has to be geared towards the racing.

I have been training in Scotland for the past few weeks and also went to the British Universities and Colleges Sports Championships in Sheffield and got a hat-trick of medals – the 400m and 200m medleys and the 200m freestyle.

It was a great weekend and our team from Robert Gordon’s University even got a mention in the latest edition of the Swimming Times. Amazing.

Before any big meet such as Olympic trials, I go into concentration mode and don’t let anything else distract me. I have fantastic sponsors – Kellogg’s, Xodus Group, Boots, Town and County and Arena – and am so grateful for all the support they give me. My management company – Red Sky Management – is also great. I am quite happy and enjoy doing media engagements when necessary. But they also know that it is a performance phase before a major event and it is a case of 100 per cent focus on doing my job. And that is swimming.

The trials last for a full week – you can watch me on the BBC red button channel – and, in addition to today’s 400m medley, I have also entered the 200m medley, the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle and the 200m breaststroke.

It is quite nice that my main event is the first one. It gets it out of the way. But the downside is that you don’t have too much time to acclimatise to the conditions.

It will be the same at the Olympics. The opening ceremony is July 27 and the 400m individual medley is on July 28.

But I’m not thinking too far ahead. At the moment, it is all about today. Wish me luck!

• Hannah Miley is the European and Commonwealth Games 400m individual medley Champion and she won the silver medal at the World Championships in Shanghai last July. She is one of Scotland’s leading prospects for the Olympic Games in London in less than five months time and is sponsored by Kellogg’s www.kelloggs.co.uk/freeswim