MMU sport student Chloe’s going for Gold-ing in Commonwealth Games swimming championships

Student Chloe Golding has won her place at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games after her strong efforts in the 200m backstrokeat the Swim England National Winter Championships.

Gold smashed a personal best, clocking two minutes 9.93 seconds, which earned her place at the Games in April.

So happy to be going to my first Commonwealth games as part of @TeamEngland❤️ @wearecomast @MMUSport @JoweActive pic.twitter.com/JwKtUatnlo

— Chloe (@chloeeegold) January 5, 2018

Training with the City of Manchester club while studying sports science and psychology, Gold has to make time for nine training sessions a week alongside coursework and exams.

The night before, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got my bags ready for swimming in the morning, and then if I’m at uni all day, I need all my books, my lunch.

She said: “If I’m swimming again at night, I’m often out the house at 5:45am and then I don’t get back till 8pm sometimes, so it is quite stressful but it’s just all about preparation.”

With two hand in dates just before the trials in December, Chloe has found her way of managing her time and ensuring that she completes everything she needs to get done.

“I manage to do it because I plan my days, I see what I’ve got to do and you’d be surprise at the amount of blank space that you have in your day and you just don’t realise because you fill your time doing nothing, and you think you’re actually really busy but actually there’s a lot of time that you have and as long as you use it wisely then you should be fine,” she said.

With little routines before competing like eating the same breakfast of porridge, then beans and scrambled eggs on toast, and then doing the same three warm up exercises before entering the pool, Gold will up her training in the coming months before the big day.

The opening ceremony of the games in Australia is on 4 April.