TREBLE YELL
Miley confident ahead of bid for third consecutive title
HER new downtime hobby is guaranteed to add a colourful dash to proceedings yet Hannah Miley is not one of the ‘peacocks’ who move her to mirth with their pre-race preening and posturing.
As the history-chasing Team Scotland veteran prepares for the earliest of Commonwealth Games starts, diving into the open-air pool here in the very first heats of the swimming programme, she cuts a relaxed figure.
Chilled enough, in fact, to break out the colouring-in books that have become part of her routine away from competition.
When the women’s 400metres Individual Medley programme kicks off the aquatics at 10.31am on Thursday (1.31am UK time), Miley will be all business.
Winner of the gold medal in Delhi eight years ago and then champion again in Glasgow back in 2014, the Inverurie superstar could become the first Scot to win back-to-back-to-back Commonwealth titles in the same event. In any sport.
She’s ready for the challenge. Sharpened by the experience of leading the medal charge in 2014 and utterly at ease with the pressure of getting all of Team Scotland off to a blistering start.
‘Glasgow was the first time I’d been in the first event,’ said Miley. ‘I think I was in the first heat of the Games, so it was daunting.
‘To have that happen again, I feel a little bit more settled, having already experienced that.
‘It’s kind of nice to have that honour on the first day. You don’t have any chance to feel nerves. It is daunting but the less you think, the better.
‘I actually brought a colouring- in book with me. So I do a bit of colouring or maybe read a book, or maybe I’ll watch movies or listen to music.
‘My biggest preparation is having my music there; I find it allows me to switch off. I love the music I listen to, I find it allows me to get into a happy state.
‘I try to listen to things that are a bit quirky, not stuff that is always in the charts. Usually something quite upbeat, with a good rhythm which makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.’
Invited to clarify exactly what kind of colouring-in projects she’s undertaking these days, Miley stressed: ‘Oh, it’s the adult kind.
‘They are quite intricate, with flowers and patterns involved. It was actually Kirsty Balfour, not long after the Commie Games, she was on a couple of training camps with me. She had a kids’ colouring book and she always used to sit and colour it in.
‘We all used to say to her: “What are you doing?” But whenever it was someone’s birthday, she would rip a page out and use that as the basis for a birthday card or something.
‘That was quite nice, so I thought I would try it. I really enjoy it. I have always enjoyed doodling, anything that has got bright colours on it, I really like it.
‘I do think about things when I am doing it but I enjoy the process of just colouring it, trying to go between the lines, doing the shaded part or — if I feel creative — I will try to mix two colours together to get different effects.
‘I am just doing colouring with pencils, although the one thing I have just noticed is that I have forgotten my pencil sharpener!’
The arts and crafts are strictly for days off at the moment. On race days, a little more focus is required. But, in Miley’s case, there is none of the choreography favoured by some.
‘On race day you see a lot of swimmers doing what we call strutting, just strutting about, and it is about peacocking,’ she added. ‘You see so much of that in swimming, it’s quite interesting.
‘I am normally quite passive — I just lie on the floor. I don’t have many muscles to show off anyway.
The possibility of a golden three-peat, as the Americans would call Miley’s bid for a third straight title, cannot be avoided.
‘Yeah it is there,’ she said. ‘But whether I achieve it or not, it is not going to be the end of me. If I can achieve it, it will be great. If I don’t, I still know I have made my fourth Games and attempted it.
‘I will be pretty happy to know that my career has still been pretty interesting.’
Having made her Games debut in Melbourne in 2006, only just missing out on a medley medal as a 16-year-old studying for school exams, Miley is well placed to compare the mood surrounding Scotland’s return to Oz.
The Scots enjoyed their bestever overseas Games in 2006, with the swimmers setting the tone on day one.
‘I’ve had a couple of Melbourne flashbacks,’ admitted Miley.
‘It feels nice being back in Australia — kind of like it has gone full circle for me.
‘I just remember day one and Caitlin McClatchey setting the ball rolling in the 200m freestyle.
‘She caused a big upset because it was supposed to be Australia’s Libby Lenton who won gold.
‘It took us by surprise and, when it happened, we all looked at each other and thought: “Hey, we can really do this”.
‘We’re not aware of the impact it has on the rest of the team because, for the first week anyway, we’re always at the pool.
‘It’s only when we finish that loads of people tell us they were watching, that they were inspired by us, that we kicked things off.
‘But we’re blissfully unaware of that during the competition, which is quite nice, because it takes the pressure off a bit.
‘It’s just another 400m IM, really. I’m an old hand at it — I think I’ve swum 190 IMs in my career to date. So this will be 191.’
Followed by 192, the final on Thursday night. With 10,000 fans crammed into the Octus Aquatics Centre, the occasion will hardly lack for colour.
And, as improbable as it may seem, Miley might yet end the night colouring her world a lovely shade of gold. Again.