Hello and welcome to my first blog!

I would like to introduce myself to all the company. My name is Jordan Hughes and I am a 15 year old competitive swimmer lucky enough to be sponsored by Mactaggart & Mickel Group in the run up to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.

Here you’ll find monthly updates on my training, competition results and everyday life, which will hopefully give you an idea of what it’s like being a young athlete in the run up to the 2014 Games.

I’ll start by giving you some more background on my life and career.

I live in Stevenson, North Ayrshire and have been a competitive swimmer for 4 years with North Ayrshire Swimming Club. I am a member of the Scottish Development Squad and train 14.5 hours in the pool and 3 hours strength and conditioning in the gym.

My favourite strokes in the pool are freestyle and butterfly but I swim all strokes. My training involves early morning sessions before and after school and all the while I am studying for 7 Standard Grades, hoping to go on to do 5 Highers to study sports science.

My main achievements in the pool to date are:

• British Age Group Champion 2008 – 2009 – 2010 – 2011 in various events including the sprint double of 100 and 200 freestyle 4 years running.
• Scottish Age Group Champion 2008 – 2009 – 2010 – 2011 in many disciplines.
• Scottish Schools Champion, West District Champion, Intercounties Champion and have many West District and Scottish records in various events.

I have represented Scotland on numerous occasions including the WISE (Wales Ireland Scotland England international) in Dublin 2011, WISE in Glasgow 2010, Intercounties 2009, 2010, 2011 and UK School Games in Sheffield 2011.

My main ambitions are to continue to improve my personal best and to represent Scotland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics.

I have just returned from a warm weather training camp in Torremolinos in Spain with the Scottish Development Squad for 10 days. This was lots of hard work and fun: in total we covered over 70 miles in the pool!

This year will be a busy one; the main highlight will be the Olympic trials in London in March. They will be held in the pool built for the Olympics. I have qualified for 5 events in total.

After that I will be going to Sunderland for the Scottish Age Group Championships in April and then onto Eindhoven for a Scotland training camp and my first International Competition. Then in July I am off to Sheffield for the British Age Group Championships.

The first half of this year is very busy so come back soon for more updates and I’ll let you know how I am getting on in training and with competitions.

Until then,

Jordan :D

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