THE STORNOWAY TO MEDAL GLORY
Kara swaps wee pool in Lewis for the big time in Birmingham
KARA HANLON’S swimming education was short and sharp and it left her deft on the turn.
The Isle of Lewis lacked an Olympic-sized pool like she’ll lap up in Birmingham over the next week for the Commonwealth Games – 50 metres would have felt like an ocean when she first took the plunge, in Stornoway 12.5 was as far as it went.
There was no option, proclaims the British women’s 100 metres breaststroke champion, except to simply adapt on the fly.
The 25-year-old said: “We just made it work. My coach was really creative, really innovative. We’d have a bungee cord and we’d be tied to it and have to swim against it for a minute or so.
“We’d have a bar at our feet and if your feet went past the bar you’d be starting again.
“So it was really hard intense training. More than anything that just made me really want to race. I always was very competitive and I have a competitive family. So it was always just nice to get in and race.”
It will be a flight in a jetpropeller plane to Brum for her parents, Marilyn and David, to see their daughter chase medals for Scotland.
Simpler than the long road trips Hanlon would take in their company in her formative years to be let off the leash – Western Isles to mainland early on a Friday. Back late on a Sunday night.
These are the big legs up that make or break sporting careers. She added: “It took a lot of effort and a lot of patience from my parents and a lot of their time.
“And a lot of their money and cost. It made it even more difficult when the transport is limited.
“My parents would have to take an extra day off work to get back that evening. I got a lot of support over the years to be able to do this.” Now based at Edinburgh University, the hard labour is belatedly paying off for Hanlon.
After Commonwealths she will jet to Rome for next month’s European Championships and make her international debut for GB at an age when many have begun to wind down.
Four years ago she missed out on qualifying for Gold Coast’s Games by an agonising four-hundredths of a second. She said: “They were hard to watch.”
Then the pool lockout of the pandemic forced her into a proper rethink.
Hanlon said: “Why am I doing this in the first place? I came back from Covid looking to just give it everything. It was like, ‘This is the only chance I’m going to have to have a swimming career’.
“So I came back really focused and determined to give everything. And with the way the programme is in Edinburgh at the moment, we’re all pushing each other on. And it’s really nice to see that hard work paying off.” Starting with the 50m breaststroke tomorrow, Hanlon will get multiple chances to make a mark at the Games – in the medley relays as well as on individual turns. She has taken the long road here and it is an adventure she wants to enjoy, saying: “Going in as an older athlete, it being my first Games, it’s something I’ve thought about.
“It’s nice to go in feeling confident in myself and feeling ready to deal with that pressure.
“As long as I just do myself and my family and my coach proud and do the best that I can, I can’t really ask for anything else.”
Back on Lewis, the next group of young pups will hitch themselves to the bungee and believe that they can make a similar jump. Inspiration, Hanlon hopes, will be the bonus Commonwealth prize.
She said: “It just shows you can use what you have to the best of your ability and you don’t necessarily have to have the big 50-metre pool on your doorstep.
“As long as you just use the things you do have to the best of your ability, work hard and just deal with that, then wherever you come from you can just go for it.”
We’d be tied to a bungee cord and then have to swim against it KARA HANLON HAD TO IMPROVISE EARLY TRAINING
more punishing 100km sessions on the bike that have given her an extra gear.
Potter said: “I was getting the same results and I just had to try something completely different, so I did that this winter but it’s been really hard.
“It’s almost like getting people to take a chance on me when I was nothing. That was hard. But I feel like I had the best people in my corner.
“And even though I’m on funding now, I’m still working with the same people.
“It’s not changed anything and that’s been key: just consistency and doing sessions. Jonny always used to tell me, ‘Just keep turning up, you’ll get there soon’ – and I have.”