Wilby looking for Glasgow boost on the road to Tokyo
TOKYO preparations are firmly on British breaststroke star James Wilby’s mind but he isn’t getting carried away by the prospect of booking his seat on the plane just yet.
Wilby is set to compete at the LEN European Short Course Championships in Glasgow in December, vying not only for medals but also valuable momentum heading into Olympic selection in April.
The former Loughborough University student has represented Great Britain at every major competition apart from the Games, scooping 100m breaststroke silver at this summer’s World Championships as well as two more second places at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.
And it is not long before Wilby returns to the city of his birth to compete at a venue he enjoys racing in, seeking to build confidence with a crucial year ahead.
“I’m always excited to go to Glasgow. I really enjoy swimming there and it’s a good opportunity for me to implement some key things before going into Tokyo,” said the 25-year-old. “The crowd are always very lively – they’re always getting behind the swimmers for every race and you can always hear that roar, so it makes it a really good environment.
“The championships are going to be really, really important in acting as a springboard for
Tokyo next year. Short course is a challenge for me, but we’re trying to rise to that challenge and push ourselves out of our comfort zone and perform at our best. There’s a lot to learn and a lot to practice, and then putting that into place for the next year is the overriding goal.”
Wilby has trained at closequarters to 100m and 50m breaststroke world record holder Adam Peaty since an early age, beating him at the 2010 National Youth Championships but finishing closely behind at the 2018 Europeans and in Gwangju at the Worlds this year.
Wilby has nevertheless enjoyed considerable international success, winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 200m breaststroke and being part of the team who won the 4x100m medley gold in Glasgow during the same year.
And although not an Olympian, Wilby says he is determined to follow in Peaty’s footsteps.
“It would be very special to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games,” he added. “But there are plenty of steps along the way, so it’s a case of not getting ahead of myself too much but every now and then using it as a motivating factor.” AFTER almost 15 years on the international scene, there are not too many experiences that are new for Hannah Miley. But this weekend, the two-time Commonwealth champion will step into the unknown.
Miley has signed for Rome-based Aqua Centurions, one of eight teams which will compete in the International Swimming League (ISL) and today, will take to the blocks for the opening weekend of the event in Indianapolis.
The ISL is a new venture, with swimmers competing against each other in seven locations around the world, including London next month and Las Vegas in December, for $7m in prize money. Superstars of the sport such as Adam Peaty, Chad Le Clos and Katie Ledecky will feature, with the goal being to showcase swimming in a new way and Miley admits she is thrilled to have been given the opportunity to be involved.
“This is something really fresh and new and I’m so excited to be a part of it,” the 30-year-old said. “I’m getting the chance to be team-mates with swimmers who I’d normally swim head-to-head against and that’s really exciting. It sounds like it’s going to be really fun.
“What’s also different is that it’s not just about times. It’s about getting points on the board for your team and actually the times don’t matter. Having said that though, I think there will be some really fast times and potentially some world records broken.”
Miley hasn’t signed up to the ISL merely for the enjoyment factor though. Having lost her funding last year, the ISL is an excellent way to make some money but more than anything Miley sees the event as an important part of her schedule as she makes a tilt at making the British Olympic team for the Tokyo Games next summer.
As an athlete who has been blessed with few injuries over her long career, Miley suffered a major setback at the end of last year when she was forced to undergo ankle surgery which kept her on the sidelines for a number of months.
The lay-off meant she missed this summer’s World Championships and with the qualification meet for Tokyo Olympics just six months away, Miley must get back to her best sooner rather than later if she is to make her fourth Olympic appearance. And so the ISL is, Miley believes, the perfect way to help her get her back to competing with the best in the world.
Miley turned 30 in August, making her something of a veteran of the sport, but one of the things she believes has kept her at the top is her willingness to try new things. And her open-mindedness, coupled with her injury lay-off, has ensured that she has a different mindset these days.
“The surgery put a real hold on last year but I actually think it was one of the best things for me,” she said. “It allowed me to take a step back from everything and take a break, both physically and mentally. And it encouraged me to change my training which was a really good thing.
“I had got to the point where I was only looking at times but after having the surgery it was more about personal progression and I think it was something that both my body and my head really needed, especially coming into the Olympic cycle.”
Were Miley to make it to her fourth Olympic Games, it would be a remarkable achievement but the former European champion is not looking towards Tokyo just yet.
“I don’t really talk about the Olympics even though it’s less than a year away,” she said. “I’m looking at the next little while in stages and really, I have my eyes set on April and the British Trials which is Olympic qualifying.
“Tokyo is, of course, the ultimate dream but I want to keep things in perspective, I don’t want it to be this huge, crushing pressure on top of me.
“More than anything, I want to know that I’ve given it my absolute all so that’s all I’m concentrating on at the moment.”
This is something really fresh and new and I’m so excited to be a part of it. It sounds like it’s going to be really fun