Craig Benson is a teenager who really has burst into the limelight over the past couple of months. So much so, that the 17-year-old Warrender swimmer has now got the London 2012 Olympics set in his sights.

Craig’s most startling achievement this summer was a victory in the 100m breaststroke at the World Junior Championships in Peru. He also collected silver in the 50m event. The perfect follow up was a golden hat trick at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man in September. 

“I went to Peru knowing it was going to be very difficult but hoping to get a bronze medal,” said the modest youngster. “So to come home with the gold and silver was absolutely amazing.

“Just before I stood on the blocks I decided to try and win it. I went as fast as I could down the first length and discovered that I was level at the turn. I then just put everything into the second length.  It was so much effort but I was totally startled when I touched at the end and discovered I was first. A great feeling.

“The Commonwealth Youth Games carried more expectation. I aimed to get three golds – and I did it which was obviously very satisfying.”

The summer exploits has attracted the selectors’ attention and Craig is looking forward to an impressive double-headed challenge before Christmas.

He will line-up in the Dutch Open (doubling as the Dutch Olympic trials) in Eindhoven at the beginning of December and then it is straight onto Poland for the European Short-course Championships. 

“It was a real shock getting the selection letters,” he admitted. “It is a first British senior cap and it feels really good that I’ve been noticed at that level.”

When London was awarded the Olympics in 2005, Craig was just 11 and a fledgling swimmer with Livingston Dolphins. Competing in London was not even on the radar. 

“I remember watching it all on TV,” he said. “But even a year ago I would never ever have imagined that I might make Team GB. But if I keep improving at the same rate over the next few months then I should have a chance.”

A sixth year pupil at James Young High School in Livingston, Craig has been training with Warrender under coach Laurel Bailey for the past four years. His personal best for the 100m breaststroke is 1:01.34 and he reckons he has to get down to around 1:00.40 to make the Olympics.

“I’m about ten years younger than some of the guys at the top but I am working my way up,” he pointed out. “I know it is going to be over tough at the Olympic trials in London in March but it is a huge motivation to try and qualify for the team.  It would be so great to be swimming at my first Olympics in front of a home crowd.

“I’ve already got a couple of Highers and so I’ve got a pretty easy sixth year at school. I’m taking a lot of time out to concentrate on swimming.”

David Wilkie famously won Olympic gold in the 200m breaststroke at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and Scotland currently has a wealth of talent in the discipline. Michael Jamieson and Kris Gilchrist both made the GB Team at this summer’s World Championships in Shanghai.

Laurel Bailey is proud of the youngster’s rapid rise to fame, although she is keeping the feet firmly planted. “London is now a goal but Craig is really young,” she cautioned. “It is really the 2016 Olympics in Brazil that are the long term plan.

“Craig is a great talent and has a great appetite for training and soaks up the feedback from every race.  Perhaps his greatest asset is that he is a really god racer, just as he proved at the World Junior Championships. 

“It will be good for him to swim in Poland and then the Club are going off to Singapore for a training camp in January. That should be perfect in the build-up to the Olympic trials at the very beginning of March.”

EB

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Photograph courtesy of Commonwealth Games Scotland, photographer Rebecca Lee