Jamie Ingram can’t wait to make debut in front of ‘phenomenal’ home crowd

With a home Commonwealth Games just around the corner, we take a look at the athletes who will be competing for Team England this summer.

Team England’s Jamie Ingram says ‘it’s going to be phenomenal’ to compete in front of a home crowd in this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The City of Manchester swimmer is making his England debut at the Games and admitted how excited he is to perform inside the new Sandwell Aquatics Centre.

“I think it finally does feel real,” he said. “It felt more real when the team announcement came out and now this is like wow.

“Now we know where we’re going to be, we can visualise racing here rather than conjuring up an image in your head. You can see it now, it’s going to be so exciting to compete here.

“It’s going to be ridiculous, seeing the arena and how many seats are out there and imagining them all with people in – it’s going to be phenomenal.”

Ingram has had an impressive season so far after winning his first national medal at the British Swimming Championships in April taking the bronze in the 100m Butterfly in a time of 52.46.

He finished less than a second off double Olympic gold medallist James Guy in Sheffield and also took gold at the British Universities & Colleges (BUCS) Championships in February.

Those performances have earned him his first international call-up for the Commonwealth Games and Ingram is excited to make his debut in such a prestigious event.

He said: “Having the Commonwealth Games as my first ever international team event is incredible – I’m really looking forward to it and it sets the standard pretty high for the future as well.”

Improving every single day

Ingram believes his hard work has paid off to earn his first senior international call-up and is hoping to take in a lot from the experience.

“It’s incredible to make my debut at such a big event,” he said. “There’s so much talent in the squad and I’m hoping to gain a lot from the experience to help make myself better.”

He explained his swim journey, saying: “I just started at a club in Ripley when I was a kid.

“I didn’t learn to swim until I swam at Ripley. I stayed there until I was about 12 and then I moved to Derby to join the Derventio performance squad and swam there till I was 19.

“I then moved to Manchester for university and I have stayed here ever since – it’s been about five years now.”

Ingram believes clubs have been important in his development and encourages anyone to join a club.

He said: “The clubs have been massively important for me. I learnt to swim at Ripley. It was them that gave me the skills and taught me to work hard and made Derventio want me in the squad.

“That’s what clubs do, they teach how to work hard and how to swim well, it’s exactly the same now at Manchester.

“They give you the foundation to keep building on and help you improve yourself every single day.

“If anyone out there’s thinking of joining a club, I really encourage them to do so.”

See Team England’s full squad here