HANNAH Miley is happy to come second as she prepares for the greatest moment of her life.

The Inverurie swimmer could become the first Scot to medal in London this evening – but she is content for cyclist Mark Cavendish to lead from the front for Team GB this afternoon.

Cavendish, supported by Scot David Millar, is red-hot favourite to continue British cycling’s fine form and win the 250km road race.

Another Scot, double Commonwealth medalist Jennifer McIntosh, could even beat them both in the final of the air rifle, which takes place before lunchtime.

Later this evening, Miley will be going for gold in the 400m individual medley at the aquatics centre if, as expected, she qualifies from the heats this morning.

Miley is Scotland’s best chance of swimming gold since David Wilkie’s 200m breaststroke triumph in Montreal in 1976, although countrymen David Carry and Robbie Renwick could feature in the final of the 400m freestyle 20 minutes earlier.

However, Miley must go one better than the silver she won at the world championships in Shanghai last year.

She swam even faster at the British championships in March, her second-fastest time at the distance and the gold her seventh consecutive national title – in the same pool in which she competes today.

Miley, 22, lives and trains in Inverurie but she will have 17,500 partisan fans cheering her on today and a television audience of millions will also tune in.

And she said: “Mark’s in one of the first events to medal and that’s fine. I’d rather have that than being the very first event.

“Even in the pool I have Joe Roebuck, Roberto Pavoni, Robbie Renwick and David Carry racing before me, so I’m not technically in the first final or the first swimming final – and that’s quite nice to know.

“It’s difficult to prepare for the atmosphere in the aquatics centre as we’ve never really had a scenario where we’ve had that. The closest was at the trials with 2500 people watching. Going out with my headphones on, it wasn’t so much hearing it as feeling it.

“The reverberations going through my chest were incredible. It’ll be intriguing to see what it feels like at eight times noisier.

“I don’t think anybody can prepare for that, you have to get out there and experience it. But it’s how you control it, how you react, that’s going to be key.”

She is coached by her father Patrick, a former swimmer and triathlete who is a North Sea helicopter pilot. But sports psychology has also helped her become one of the fastest swimmers in the world.

Miley, who finished sixth in Beijing, added: “You can get your body 90 per cent ready but the last 10 is all in your head. Races can be won and lost in the call room.

“Before 2010 I didn’t realise I needed a sports psychologist but since working with one it has been a great help. It’s amazing how even a couple of words can make a difference to your confidence and self-belief.”

Michael Scott, British swimming’s national performance director, predicted London will be “the fastest Olympic competition ever”.

Team GB won six swimming medals in China, including Rebecca Adlington’s golds in the 400m and 800m freestyle.

Scott said: “The top countries have five, six or seven people they can rely on for medals. That’s where we want to be in the future.”