Hannah Miley makes no secret of the fact that she is looking at the World Championships in Kazan a stepping stone towards next year’s Olympic Games.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu is the only woman to go quicker than 25-year-old Miley in the 400m medley in 2015 and the Garioch ASC swimmer is the reigning Commonwealth champion.
However, the two-time Olympic finalist is not getting carried away ahead of the World Championships where the swimming is set to get underway on August 2.
“For us the World Championships is only second to the Olympics because you are competing against the same athletes and especially with it being a year out until the Olympics, it is our last opportunity to race against the best athletes in the world,” Miley said.
“It is an exciting time but it doesn’t mean that if you get a podium place here then it is going to be the same at the Olympics.
“Whatever happens at the Worlds, it is not going to dictate what happens at the Olympics so the Worlds is a chance to practice our skills, make sure we nail our turns and the other marginal gains so that when the Olympics come around - which is the big one – then we are prepared to hopefully stand on the podium more than once.”
That is not to say that Miley lacks confidence though. This will be her fourth World Championships and she has reached the 400m medley final on each occasion, winning silver in 2011.
Miley, who will also be competing in the 200m medley and butterfly events, added: “I do feel confident but I am not the sort of person to come out bragging saying ‘yes I am going to come away with a medal’.
“It is something I do target and I am aiming for and it is an added bonus if I do accomplishe that goal because I can’t control what my competitors do. You don’t know if they will have a good day or a bad day on the day you race.
“As long as I give the best performance I can give, as cliché as it sounds, that is all I can do. Then you have to see if that is good enough to get on the podium. If not then as long as I hit the target that I have set myself [I will be happy] as that is what I am looking for.”