MICHAEL JAMIESON knows what it takes to win medals at major championships.
The breaststroker has in his collection two Commonwealth Games silver medals, World and European medals as well as an Olympic silver and the Glaswegian is confident his compatriots will make a real impact at Gold Coast 2018, which kicks-off on Wednesday.
There is little doubt that the Scottish team is stacked with talent and Jamieson, who retired from the sport last year, is optimistic of the squad’s chances.
“The team looks really great,” the 29-year-old said.
“I think that overall, there’s a real chance to get a very good medal tally. But even better than that, the top athletes we have are amongst the top in the world so I’m looking forward to supporting these guys.”
Scotland’s main rivals for silverware in many events are likely to be, in the main, Australia and England. The English swimmers are, of course, well-known to the Scots and the Australian trials, which took place last month, gave a good indication of where the Aussies are. And from what Jamieson saw, the Scots have little to worry about.
“I was looking at the results of the Aussie trials last month," he said.
"Historically, they’re very strong at this time of year but they weren’t as strong as people thought they might be this year so that would have given the Scottish guys like Duncan Scott, Dan Wallace and Ross Murdoch a lot of confidence because they’re more than capable of the times that were posted.”
And Jamieson will be paying particular attention to Hannah Miley’s exploits as she attempts to make Team Scotland history by winning three consecutive gold medals in the same event as she attempts to successfully defend her 400m individual medley title for the third time.
Jamieson was a teammate of Miley’s countless times, including at Commonwealth Games and Olympics and so has seen first-hand the work she has put in to extend her career as she has. And the Glaswegian admits he would be thrilled to see her triumph once again.
“It would be fantastic to see Hannah win her third gold," he said.
"To have stayed at the top for so long is remarkable. I think that everyone thought that after Rio, it was going to be tough for her to get back to the top but to be able to turn it around and get back to the level she’s at shows her love for the sport and also her strength of character. She’s in a really nice position – she’s choosing to be there and she has nothing to prove. So as long as she holds onto that mindset and remembers to enjoy it then I think she’ll do really well.”
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