Last summer, Michael Jamieson just missed out on selection for the world swimming championships in Rome. It was a time for a re-think. 

Nine months later, and he is now a British champion, has been selected for two events at the European Championships and he has set his sights on bringing home a medal for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October.

So what has changed? “I moved to Bath last September and it really is a great place to be,” explained the Glasgow-born 21-year-old. “It is one of the British Intensive Training Centres and everything is geared towards success.”

Jamieson, a competitive swimmer since the age of nine, is a breaststroke specialist and started his career with City of Glasgow – he attended the Glasgow School of Sport based at Bellahouston Academy - before heading across the M8 to join the City of Edinburgh scheme. 

“I joined Edinburgh when I left school at 17 and spent the next three years there training with Kris Gilchrist (another breaststroke man) under coach Fred Vergnoux,” he continued. “When the Edinburgh scheme closed in 2008 I then followed Fred to Paris. Kris went over there as well.

“My decision to move to Bath last September was totally swimming related. I must admit, I do miss Paris and all the cultural stuff. But I had been training with Kris for a long time and felt I needed something new. Now I’m doing much more land training – with Fred it was more about the swimming.”

Jamieson’s results at the British Gas Swimming Championships at Sheffield this month (April) confirmed that his career has taken another big stride forward. He finished second to Gilchrist, a 27-year-old Olympian, in his lesser 100m event and then won the 200m. It means he will be able to swim both events at the European Championships in Budapest in August.

“Getting one of the two 100m spots was a bit of a bonus. It was great that Kris and I got the one-two,” he said. “I was pleased to win the 200m, but I wasn’t too happy with my time (2:11.14). But, on the other hand, I hadn’t fully prepared for Sheffield. My main focus is on the Scottish Commonwealth Games trails in Glasgow in June.  

“I’d love to get a medal in Delhi, although I’m not counting any chickens. But the ultimate goal is to get to the London 2012 Olympics in London and try and get onto the podium.  That is the reason that I’ve been training all those years.”

Following the British Championships, Jamieson had a fleeting trip home to Glasgow before heading for training camp in Cyprus with the rest of the Bath swimmers. “I had a couple of days off and then it was back into the gym,” he said with a slight grimace. “But all the hard work should be worthwhile.”

A clever lad, Jamieson has only partly put his ‘other life’ on hold during these next few years of intensity in the build-up to 2012.

“I do a little bit of swimming teaching to bring in some extra cash and I’m also studying sports performance at Bath University. I really would like to study something a little bit more challenging,’ he explained. “But that can wait until later.”

What he can’t wait for is the chance to have a medal hanging around his neck at a major championship. He hopes to start at the Commonwealth Games this year – the absolute dream would be to do it in London in two years’ time.

EB
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