james gibson
There were two swimmers who stood out from a host of impressive performances at last month's British Championships. One of those was Loughborough's James Gibson, who set a new British and Commonwealth record of 1:00.47 in the men's 100m breastroke to cement his place on the British team for this year's World Championships in Barcelona. Pullbuoy tracked him down to the British national squad's orientation camp at his home pool in Loughborough to get the low down on that race.
How happy were you with your swims at the trials?
I was immensely happy with my 100m performance as I was beginning to think that I was a bit of a 1 swim wonder. My best time was still from year ago and I only managed to get within a second of that at the Commonwealth games, for whatever reason, but I was delighted with the 100. I'm not so happy with my 50 but that's to be expected as I haven't really been training for it at all.
Did you expect to swim that fast on Sunday?
I expected to swim fast and looking back at my swim there's potential to swim a lot faster than I did. I swam that race like a novice not a professional swimmer.
You must be aiming for a sub 60 second swim now
Definitely - not too far in the future either.
Darren Mew had been swimming very well all week, especially in the 100m semi, did that spur you on in the final?
I knew after the semis I had something left, as I'd been in there on my own and was only racing myself, but I wouldn't make any brave statements after semi finals - I have done in the past and lived to regret it. Obviously Darren had a very bad Commonwealth Games by his own standards, but he's picked himself up to come back and is swimming fantastically. Of course it makes you raise your game when there's another guy going faster than you in the semi you have to swim faster than him in the final.
You also commented after that final that the last 25 of your 100 is much better - have you been doing lots of Bill's famous back-end sets? What sort of thing?
I was a bit excited after the race - I've looked back at the race and I possibly had the worst back end of the whole field. So I've shut myself up - I don't know what I was talking about! For that last 25 of the race we've been doing the 7000m sessions just to build up general fitness, but Bill's back end sets might be 4x100, with 50m easy followed by 50m at or above race pace.
Are you concerned that your 50m speed has been affected or with 50m not being Olympic event does it not bother you?
Not at all. I've looked at this over the past few years with my coach and what's best for my swimming career. The 50m might get me world records and medals but it will never get me an Olympic medal.
So do you see yourself as more of a 100m swimmer now?
I have been better as a 100m swimmer for the last 2 years rather than the 50. Even though I won the Commonwealth Games at the 50, I think I have been a better 100 swimmer.
Has your training changed to accommodate that shift?
Yes, the brand new pool here in Loughborough means we can train long course instead of in a 25 yard pool. Just generally I'm a lot fitter as are most of the Loughborough squad as a result.
You've always had a good squad here at Loughborough - do you expect it to get stronger now you've got this pool?
As we saw at the trials we had about 40 swimmers, which is great. And being a university squad we generate a great team atmosphere and now we've got this pool we'll hopefully attract some more top juniors and the team will go from strength to strength.
Over the winter Bill was publicly quite critical of the training you breaststroke guys were doing - did that have an effect on what you've been doing in the pool?
It didn't really. Obviously Bill oversees what we do and gives us guidelines but we like to keep our heads down and get on with our training and ignore the comments in the press. Quite often they're taken out of context and it also shows that he's bothered about us. If he wasn't he wouldn't be talking about us. After all, his job is to criticise - he's never going to be satisfied he wants the results and he's always going to criticise. And to be honest that's what we need, some of us need a kick up the backside every now and then.
Did you learn a lot on the world cup tour?
The world cup tour in Europe was a massive learning curve for me, maybe less from a squad point of view, but just getting the opportunity to race the best swimmers in the world and being able to beat them when we were unrested and they were relatively fresh.
Was it good to get back into a full racing suit after the "do it tough" approach of the winter tour?
It feels great especially having not been able to do what you want and then coming to trials and you're left to wear your own suits, shave down and just swim fast. We haven't had that opportunity to race since Manchester, which is what, 10 months ago now.
To an outsider, a bodysuit might look like a fashion statement - how much difference do you find it makes?
I can see how lots of people think that it's a publicity thing, but Diana have made me a fantastic suit and I would not race in anything else.
Just recently, a 13 year old Hungarian lad swam 63.1 and 2:14.6 for breaststroke long course. He's supposedly planning to cause an upset at the World's this year and win the Olympics next year. What do you think about that?
I've been very aware of him - I'm a bit of a swimming geek and I like to keep an eye on all my rivals. I've been aware of him since he was 12 and I've been thinking "What on earth is he going to do.." But to say what he won't do what he's threatening to do in Barcelona would be naive, so I would just say watch this space!
Rightly or wrongly you were disqualified at the last worlds for a fly kick. Have you changed the way you swim to avoid a repeat?
I have definitely because it was something I didn't think I was doing, but looking back on the videos it was and I've worked very hard with the sports scientist, Jodi Cosser, here at Loughborough with underwater video footage etc. and that's all sorted now.
Do you think that the rules need clarifying?
I'm not too sure - I think the rules are good as they are. But if you look at a very powerful swimmer with a strong upper body, their natural undulation is going to be much more than a less powerful swimmer or one of the girls maybe. It's just a natural movement and it's a very difficult issue for the judges, but at the end of the day it's up to us as swimmers to make sure that we don't do anything we're not supposed to do.
Finally, what do you want to get out of Barcelona?
Obviously the stakes are higher now and I've put myself in a good position to do well. All I want to do is go there and swim PB's and we'll see what happens.