Local swimmers chasing Olympic dreams

Beating the path to England's north-west in the greatest numbers is the University of Edinburgh club, Scotland's current No.?1, who will send 12 swimmers in search of medals. Coach Chris Jones sees the event as an opportunity for his protgs to seize international recognition.

"It's quite a big meet in the calendar for us," says Jones. "It acts as qualifying for the World Championships, the World University Games and the European University Games. We have many new swimmers this year, and this event is a good indicator of how they're adapting to the programme."

The university's dozen representatives will hope to emulate four of their club's alumni who won places on the Beijing Olympic team of 2008. Those hoping to gain podium finishes include Kerry Buchan and Kathryn Johnson, who both competed at Delhi's Commonwealth Games last year, Iain McMillan, who narrowly missed out on the trip to India and two younger swimmers Sarah Eaglesham and Jamie Coulter.

The students' club - which in fact is made up of current students, as well as graduates and school-age pupils - is just three years old but has bred many top swimmers since rising from the ashes of the City of Edinburgh club that folded in 2008 after withdrawal of funding. "We've had a lot of success in that time," says Jones. "I was over in Delhi last year as one of the coaches on the Scotland team, and we had three girls on the team. We've had swimmers at the European Championships, too"

Jones and his team harbour great anticipation of the re-opening of Edinburgh's only long-course pool, the Commonwealth, work upon work is currently scheduled to finish early next year. Local swimmers have been forced to go elsewhere for competition-size training facilities, one recent example being the East Lothian Swim Team that travelled to Fuerteventura a fortnight ago to prepare for this weekend's eight-day competition.

Their coach Mat Trodden says his best swimmers - including Emma Hunter, Mark Tully and James Clegg - will aim to match their success at Scottish level on a UK scale.

"We had quite a few of our members win Scottish titles at the Scottish age group event last year, so we're looking to replicate that.

"At the British, both Mark and Emma don't have much experience, so the focus is to expose them to the UK-wide championships in time for Olympic rials next year.

"It's been a rapid rise for these kids, but I hope as many of them as possible, plus a few of the younger ones, can make it to the [Olympic] trials, leading to the big one which is the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014."

Hunter, 17, will compete in the 50m and 100m backstroke events, while 19-year-old Tully will contest the 50m breaststroke and James Clegg, 16, enters the visual impairment event.

Warrender Swim Club, meanwhile, will send six of its finest to Manchester, including three boys with the mission of qualifying for forthcoming national teams at major events. Lewis Smith, 22, who trains and studies in Stirling but will represent the club of his younger days, has the World Championships in sight, while Dan Wallace, 17, and Craig Benson, a year younger, will be hoping to impress watching selectors ahead of the European Junior Championships. Eighteen-year-old Craig McNally, who represented Scotland at Delhi last year, will compete alongside fellow Warrender boys Scott Quinn, 19, and Chris Kerr, 17.

Club coach Laurel Bailey said: "All of the boys swim at Scottish national level and most at British level. It will be quite hard for them to make the Olympic team because most are fairly young, but certainly Lewis will try. The younger boys are all in the top five in the UK [at their age groups and in chosen disciplines] and will be targeting Glasgow in 2014."

"It's been a rapid rise for these kids but I hope as many as possible make it to the Olympic trials" Mat Trodden