THE Michael Jamieson-Ross Murdoch rivalry is perhaps the most exciting duel in Scottish sport at the moment and it is a battle that Scotland's greatest ever swimmer, David Wilkie, is savouring.

Jamieson won silver at London 2012 in the 200m breaststroke, the event in which Wilkie became Olympic champion in 1976 and now Murdoch, who famously beat Jamieson to gold at Glasgow 2014, aims to add his name to the list of great Scottish breaststrokers. The competition between the pair, Wilkie believes, is a glorious thing for Scottish sport.

"The Jamieson-Murdoch rivalry is fantastic and I think it gives people who might not be interested in swimming a real reason to watch," said the 61-year-old. "I think it was quite shocking for Michael [to lose in Glasgow]. I think he felt that he just had to turn up, swim his four lengths and they would give him the gold medal and then this young guy, Murdoch, comes along and beats him."

Murdoch's victory propelled him into the public's consciousness and the 21-year-old has built superbly on his Commonwealth success. He goes into the World Championships later this month ranked second in the world in the 100m breaststroke and he has high expectations of securing his first global medal. After watching the University of Stirling swimmer succeed at the Commonwealth Games, Wilkie believes he is truly world class. "After the heats at Glasgow 2014, I said to watch out for Murdoch," says Wilkie. "I was surprised that morning because I didn't think Ross was as good as that, but after I watched him swim, I thought he would win the final."

Wilkie believes that the Commonwealth champion will be hitting his peak at just the right time to excel in the Olympic Games next summer. "The perfect age for a breaststroker is 22, so he'll be at the right age to peak in Rio," the three-time Olympic medallist says. "Will he go on until he's 26? Of course he will, so he's got an opportunity after Rio too. He should make the team [for Rio], there's no doubt about that but will he win a gold medal? I don't know because it's going to be a very tough event. There's a lot of top-class swimmers in there at the moment, so it's really just a case of watch this space."

For Jamieson, winning only silver last year was a bitter blow. The 26-year-old had been the 'Face of the Games' and anything less than gold was going to be disappointing. Wilkie admits that rebounding from such a setback is not easy. "It's very hard to come back from a knock like that. In sport, you build-up. Michael won silver at London 2012, he was expecting to win gold at Glasgow 2014 and then go on from there to win gold in Rio next year and his defeat last summer really scuppered those plans," he says. "A setback like that can work both ways - it can either totally destroy you or it can give you the fillip that you need to push on. Breaststroke is so strong in Britain at the moment, it's really world class and it's the toughest event to be in, so if Michael does come back then good on him. I'd love to see him come back though because he's a really nice guy and a good swimmer."

In elite sport, the line between over-training and under-training is incalculably fine and Wilkie believes that Jamieson may have pushed himself too hard in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games. "I think that Michael had done the hard work but I think he might have over-trained," says Wilkie. "The mental side comes into it a lot too. It's 50 per cent physical, 50 per cent mental because if you're doubting your ability at all then you're not going to perform well."

After winning silver in the 1972 Olympic Games, Wilkie relocated to the US and it is something that Glasgow 2014 gold medallist Dan Wallace has also done. Wilkie believes more swimmers in this country should consider a similar move. "I think going to America is something that more Scottish swimmers should look at," he says. "We've had a few swimmers who've done it and they've come back and done really well. It's an open invitation- if you're good enough then you can go there."

Wilkie was in Glasgow promoting this month's IPC World Championships and staging more world-class swimming events is something that he is hugely supportive of. "If you have world-class facilities like we have, then you want to host events like this," he says. "And the public is really enamoured with para sport now, they realise just how good these athletes actually are."

Watch the world's best male and female para-swimmers in action at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow from 13-19 July 2015. Tickets priced £10/£15 for Adults and free for Under-16s are on general sale and can be bought online via ticketmaster.co.uk/glasgow2015.