DUBAI // This summer’s Commonwealth Games may only be of passing interest to much of the UAE sporting public, but Dubai will have a small stake in the swimming meet.
Mike Dawson, who will represent Northern Ireland at the Games in Glasgow, has been living and training in Dubai for the past year.
The breaststroke specialist moved to the city after finishing work on an engineering degree last year to train with the elite swimmers at Hamilton Aquatics.
Dawson hoped the chance to work with a group that includes UAE-born Olympian Velimir Stjepanovic would aid his bid to make it to a second Commonwealth Games.
He achieved that goal in April, when he swam inside the Games’ qualifying time of 29.09 seconds in the 50-metre breaststroke event at the Irish National Championships.
Now 21, he is hoping to better his achievements at age 17, when he debuted at the Commonwealth Games in India four years ago.
“I was one of the youngest in the field and I really just went for experience, but I made two semi-finals,” he said of the 50m and 100m breaststroke events at the 2010 Games in Delhi. “That was much more than I was expecting. This year, I want to equal that and maybe go one step farther in the 50m, which would be to make the top 10.
“The ultimate goal would be to make that final. Then, anything can happen.”
Dawson said he will be better equipped to achieve his goals this time around thanks to the combination of the experience he gained four years ago as well as his year spent training in Dubai.
In one semi-final, he was one lane over from Cameron van der Burgh, the world record holder.
“That was so surreal because you are standing there beside a guy who has won multiple world championships, and I am only 17 years old,” said Dawson, who is likely to start a new job in the UK after the Games.
“I was very nervous last time around, but this time I am far more focused on what I have to do. I know how things are going to run and how I should hold myself in the call room and things like that.
“I just want to put all this hard work into practice and get out there.”
Chris Tidey, the managing director of Hamilton Aquatics in the UAE, said Dawson has been posting impressive times in training ahead of the trip to Glasgow.
“With Mike, it is a case of him trying to get his performances in a race to match what he has been doing in training,” Tidey said.
“What he has been doing in training has been absolutely unbelievable. There may be a few race-day nerves which we have to work through.”
The Commonwealth Games swimming competition begins on July 24.
pradley@thenational.ae
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