TBT #3! European Championships 2014 and my first international medal

This still has to be one of my favourite sporting moments I have ever had. But it is also a huge example of the fact that I was FAR off being a full package at this time.

I was coming off the back of making my first international final at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. I had been asked whilst at the holding camp if I would be interested in doing the European Championships and, of course jumped at the opportunity. I was on a roll and wanted to keep the season going as long as possible.

I'll tell the story from after the Commonwealth Games, as once the games had finished, I had a 10-day period where I was training back in Bath with Mark Skimming and team, before heading to Nationals, then from there to Loughborough for a week holding camp, to Berlin for the Championships.

Although this was one of the best experiences of my life, I made a huge mistake before I even got there and very nearly couldn't even make it to Berlin!

My Dad was taking me to Nationals that year, and it would be the last time I would be in my home in Bath before I swam at European Championships, despite it being still 2 1/2 weeks until departure. He had been asking me for days before we left to go to Nationals to make sure I had my passport in a safe location, 'Yes Dad, I do!' I would say, knowing full-well that I had not checked but assumed I knew where it was.

The day before I leave and I am looking EVERYWHERE for this passport, and when I say I never found it, I mean I haven't seen it since the Commonwealth Games homecoming flight.

My Dad, was understandably irate at me, my coach knowing what I was like wasn't shocked but probably was also very frustrated with me, and it was far from my finest moment.

So we are at Nationals and my Dad has been ringing the passport agency trying to get an emergency appointment, he manages to get one after two days of trying, in Glasgow, the same place I was just two weeks earlier for the Commonwealth Games, no less, the day of my 1500m freestyle at Nationals.

Luckily, my coach and I didn't really think it was a good idea to do the race anyway, but I felt very foolish and had to complete a 300+mile round trip whilst I was supposed to be racing!

Once that day had passed, everything else felt relatively plain sailing. We were trying to do a 'double-dip' taper for the Europeans as there was such a small window between the two games, so whilst racing at this competition, we would then hop in the swim down pool and do a 'holding session'. These looked like '30'100s 1 on 1 off', or '30'50s as 2 @ 200pace fly, 1 easyx10 etc. it made racing the finals quite difficult, I remember qualifying first for the 200fly in a pb (1:58.66) then failing to break 2mins in the final as I was that dead!

Fastforward to the holding camp and I am feeling great in the water, my confidence is through the roof and I am really excited to get out to the games. I fondly remember having a couple of dinners with Aimee Willmott at the holding camp as we were the only two staying at this accommodation block.

At the Europeans (navigated the flight successfully...) I was racing day 1 in the 400m freestyle, then day 3 for the 1500m heat, day 4 for the 200m butterfly (& 1500m free final if I had made it).

On the first day, I feel like I am nailing my warm-up, my preparation and everything, but in the race something didn't feel right, and I got very lucky.

I ended up finishing 7th in my heat, in a time a fraction over my PB. Amazingly, I made the final in 8th, only 1 person went faster in the first semi-final. I had been given an extremely lucky reprieve.

My coach for this competition was Rich Denigan from Leeds, the same coach who I was training with in my final preparations for Olympic trials last year. I thought he was great and really enjoyed working with him, and he gave me one piece of feedback after my heat.

"Great swim and you have good going out speed, but you could make that so much easier if you go easier on the legs, so remember in the final, light legs"

Light legs, that was the only thing I took from it, I warmed up thinking about it, using it and thinking about when I would bring my legs in as that 'weapon'.

So in the final, I am in lane 8, but feeling pretty confident in how to do better, I wasn't even thinking of achieving a medal, I just wanted to do better than the heat.

So I go out smooth to 100, but looking across I am still ahead of the guys in lane 7 & 6, same story at 200m, This was the first moment I realised that I was in medal contention.

I knew my weapon was about to be brought in, and I flipped a switch at 200m.

at the 300m mark, I turned in 2nd place, at 350, I was in 3rd, but I still had a big kick to come.

I brought home the race in a 27.2, the fastest finishing split in the field, swimming a 3:47.50, knocking over 2 seconds off my pb, and had finished 3rd.

I was shocked, confused but absolutely over the moon.

This will probably sound quite amateurish, but I did not even have my presentation jacket incase you win a medal, so I went to the podium in my comfy jumper I used before the heats, I wasn't prepared to be in that position but I had achieved it!

I shared a room with Roberto Pavoni at that competition and we really brought the best out of each other. The energy in that room was immense as we were both riding the crest of a positivity wave. That first night got us both feeling great about the rest of the week, he went on to achieve a silver and bronze himself, we were hanging our medals off the lights in our bedroom, it was such a surreal experience!

My next event after a day off was the 1500m freestyle, I had a very good heat swim and had gone just one second off my personal best feeling pretty comfortable (15:06). this qualified me in 5th position and was also where I met my training partner, Richard Nagy as we spent the whole last 1000m gazing into each others eyes!

After qualifying for the final, and how the 400m had gone, I decided to scrap the 200m butterfly to focus on the final. Even though now I would have loved to know how that would have gone if I had raced, it was the right call, and I have no regrets about it.

The final comes along and I am swimming next to Stephen Milne, a fellow Brit and good friend, as well as Pal Joenson, an extremely good swimmer from the Faroe Islands.

The first 500m I am swimming very strong and am feeling good. I think I am about 4th or 5th, going along just ahead of Stephen and in a race with Pal, I pick up the pace over the next 500m and am actually faster than my first 500m, I turn in 3rd at the 1000m mark for the only 50m in the race, as what was coming next hit me like a tonne of bricks.

My confidence and race plan had gotten slightly away from me, and trying slightly too hard in that middle 500m hit me very hard. Pal was gone from this point, a 1350, Stevo was level with me, and in only 150m to the finish, he pulled 5 1/2 seconds on me! But that didn't matter in the end, as although in the end I had finished 5th, I had broken 15mins and swam a 7 second pb.

Both me and Stevo were celebrating and at the end of the day what other reason was I ever in the sport except for self-improvement? I was very proud of myself and my swim.

Afterwards, I was done racing! I had friends in the form of a family in Berlin, in which we met from a family holiday when I was 10, that I met up with and had a lovely explore of the capital with on one of the days, but the rest of the time was spent around that cheering on the team for the rest of the meet, and celebrating what a time it had been.

I made some incredible friends on this trip, including Max Litchfield and Shauna Lee, and I will hold the competition close to me.

What I can tell you from my experience:

- It is ok to make mistakes, I made a huge one that I almost didn't get away with, but as long as you learn from these experiences then you are doing great!

- Listen to your coaches! The advice I had gotten before the 400m final helped me to achieve the medal and I am really grateful to Mark Skimming and Rich Denigan in helping me get there

- Take your swimming journey one step at a time and enjoy the process, one day it will be gone and there is a long time to be retired, so enjoy the highs, and learn from the lows.