Miles better four years on
UNIVERSITY of Bath student-swimmer Miles Munro believes his previous Commonwealth experience will help him when he represents Guernsey at the Gold Coast 2018 Games in Australia next year.
Munro had just turned 18 when he competed at the Glasgow 2014 Games, reaching the semi-finals in both the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly.
He moved to the University of Bath the following month and has spent the past three years juggling an integrated mechanical and electrical engineering degree course with an intensive training programme as part of the student swimming group coached by Mark Skimming and Andrei Vorontsov.
That effort has been rewarded with a place in the three-strong Guernsey swimming squad for Gold Coast 2018 – Tom Hollingsworth and Tatiana Tostevin being the other two – and Munro is looking forward to showing how much he has improved while training in the London 2012 Legacy Pool.
‘It’s going to be my second appearance at the Commonwealths for Guernsey and it’s very exciting,’ he said.
‘I was quite young when I raced in Glasgow. It was unlike anything I had experienced before but I was 12th in both the 50m fly and 50m free.
‘Now I am coming back a lot stronger and quicker so I am hoping to make finals this time, really push my personal bests and be among the top swimmers.
‘I’m studying engineering so it’s very full-on. You’re looking at 30 hours a week for my swimming training and competing, which is almost a full-time job in itself, and then I have to balance a full-time course on top of that.
‘It’s certainly very demanding but it’s all worth it when you get to go to the Gold Coast and compete in the Commonwealths.’
More in Wednesday's Guernsey Press.
