It's been a whirlwind 11 months for Imogen Bankier. So much so, that she has come tantalisingly close to qualifying for the Olympic Games - something she could never have even dared dream about a year ago.

In partnership with Robert Blair, a former Scottish cap who has represented England for the past seven years, 20-year-old Imogen is on the up and up in the world rankings and the pair have reached a current high of No.19 in the mixed doubles.

The highlights have been stacked up as rapidly as their rise to the top. They won the Bank of Scotland Centenary Championships at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall in November, reached the quarter-final of last month's All-England and beaten the world No.3 pair from Indonesia, Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa.

A looming date is this month's European Championships in Herning in Denmark. Thankfully, the Scottish and English selectors played ball - or should that be shuttlecock? - and agreed to allowing players from the two different countries to team up in the individual championships. In the team event, they will be on opposite sides of the net.

Imogen is sincerely grateful. "I'm really glad that we've been given the chance to play together," she said. "With a bit of luck, we could be one of the seeds and I think we have a really good chance of doing well."

The Olympic selection deadline is May 1, and the criteria demands a place in the world's top 16. With a major tournament in India as well as the Europeans, it is an achievable goal.

But the disappointment for Britain's new rising stars is that the selectors are limited to picking two per event. And England's Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson and Donna Kellogg and Anthony Clark, ranked No. 6 and 8 in the world respectively, have virtually wrapped up the mixed places.

But there remains an outside chance. No one would wish any ill on the top ten players, but injury or illness is always a possibility.

Whatever happens as regards Beijing, Imogen cannot be anything but delighted at the way her game and her sporting career have advanced over the past year. At the start of 2007, she was juggling her badminton with her law studies at Glasgow University.

But she then made the difficult decision to give up University and move south to join the new GB set up at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. "I really didn't feel I was doing justice to either my degree studies or may badminton," explained this all-or-nothing individual. "I had to make the choice."

It has proved to be a good one. She shares a flat with English internationalist Suzanne Rayappan and training and competing is a full-time job. After her string of good results, her funding should also be hiked at the next review in June.

When she looks back on the past year, even she can hardly believe her progress. "It has been great, especially considering I've missed a couple of tournaments through illness and Rob has been injured," she said.

"I never ever expected to have a chance of making the Olympics, although a glimmer of hope arose over the last few months. But it was never really feasible."

But the 2012 Olympics are a definite goal - Rob will be 30 by then - and there are plenty of other milestones along the way. World Championships, Super Series titles and the chance the added bonus of the chance to make headway in the women's doubles.

After an amicable split up with fellow-Scot Emma Mason - they were good enough to reach No.1 on the European circuit a couple of years ago - Imogen teamed up late last year with England's Sarah Bok.

"We've already had some promising results and once we've had a summer's training on court together I think that next season will be really exciting," said Imogen.

So while Beijing 2008 might just be a step too far, Imogen Bankier is shaping up as one of our really promising athletes on the road to London 2012.

EB
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See Imogen's profile on the Scottish Institute of SPort website by clicking here.