Scots swimmers will peak for Commonwealth Games

IN MELBOURNE in 2006, Scotland’s swimmers pulled six gold medals out of a hat. If David Carry is right and that haul can be repeated in Glasgow next summer, he is sure that it will be neither a trick nor a “fluke”.
Michael Jamieson was fifth at the worlds in Barcelona but it would have been enough for a Commonwealth Games medal. Picture: GettyMichael Jamieson was fifth at the worlds in Barcelona but it would have been enough for a Commonwealth Games medal. Picture: Getty
Michael Jamieson was fifth at the worlds in Barcelona but it would have been enough for a Commonwealth Games medal. Picture: Getty

Despatches from last week’s World Championships in Barcelona had the potential to be misinterpreted. A dreadful performance by Great Britain that did nothing to banish the woes of last summer’s London Olympics. One medal to show for millions of pounds of public money.

All of this obscured a very pleasing parochial truth. From a Scottish point of view, it was a good week – and from a Glasgow 2014 point of view, it was a very good week.

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Scotland’s three 200 metres specialists all cemented their reputations as members of the world elite, and history tells us that members of the world elite rarely lag behind at the Commonwealth Games.

Michael Jamieson was fifth in the Barcelona breaststroke, the same as Hannah Miley in the individual medley. Robbie Renwick was sixth over four laps of freestyle.

Each of the trio confessed to a feeling of frustration because these were not career-best results, but teleport their performances to Tollcross Park in 11 months’ time and the swimmers will climb the podium as often as they enter the recovery pool.

“It’s incredible: with a Scottish hat on, I think the World Championships was actually a huge success,” Carry told The Scotsman yesterday after being unveiled as a Glasgow 2014 ambassador. “Obviously we had the big guns, Hannah, Michael and Robbie, all in that Commonwealth Games medal zone which we all like to see, but actually there is a whole new generation coming through as well in Craig McNally, Dan Wallace; Craig Benson wasn’t even there and he is producing world-class times as well.

“So there’s almost a kind of critical mass of high-performing, world-class individuals that are coming through the swimming set-up and it’s exciting to think they are going to be peaking at the right time. The exciting thing for me, now that I’m on the board of directors of Scottish Swimming, is that we are no longer relying on flukes or individual high performers – there is almost a conveyor belt of world-class athletes coming through time after time.

“We know how to do it now, and it’s incredible to see the set-up that they have.”

Carry was not stopped at the airport in 2006 and identified as a potential medallist. Yet he came back with two golds, as did Caitlin McClatchey and Gregor Tait.

Miley, Renwick and more particularly Jamieson, the home-town hero with the Olympic silver medal, will be swamped by expectations as next summer approaches.

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“As an individual going into the 2006 Games, although I was ranked No 1 in the world, I think coming out of that year I may have been top five or six, whereas Michael and Hannah are both certainly ranked No 1 in the world in terms of times,” added Carry.

“They are performers as well, and that’s the exciting thing about not only the grand masters, if you like, Michael and Hannah and Robbie, but the youngsters who are coming through. They are performing at a world stage and are not scared to perform at a world stage, and actually expect to be there.

“So that, for me, is a whole culture change from when I started – it was just ‘lucky to get the tracksuit, lucky to make the team, if they made a medal brilliant’ – certainly not expecting medals.

“Now we are expecting medals and to see Michael Jamieson’s attitude after London 2012, to be disappointed with a silver medal, disappointed going under the world record, disappointed not to be winning, that is the kind of mentality that we now are expecting.”

So what about those expectations? Will Renwick, Carry’s former rival and fellow Aberdonian, repeat his New Delhi victory in the waters where he trains? Will Miley, a near-veteran female swimmer at 24, fend off the new generation to make it two golds in a row?

Carry is adamant that the pressure of competing at home will not be overbearing for his successors.

“Robbie Renwick is a really good example – he has always performed his best at the major championships, and he is somebody that is a reigning Commonwealth champion so he has got that pedigree and he knows that he is able to win,” said Carry, who retired last year to move to Edinburgh and join Red Sky Management.

“Hannah Miley is a reigning Commonwealth champion and Michael Jamieson stepped up beyond all recognition at the last Olympics and although disappointed with the outcome at the World Championships, has the absolute driven determination to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

• The application process for tickets to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games opens next Monday, 19 August, and closes on 16 September. See glasgow2014.com/tickets for more information.

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