Mark Szaranek has just left Auchmuty High School to embark on a gap year that will be very different from most.

There will be no jolly jaunt travelling the world, instead it will be all about hard work and commitment if he is to fulfil his dream of competing for Scotland at next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Competing in the Games' Pool, the 17-year-old showed some fine form yesterday in winning the 200 metre individual medley at the Scottish Gas National Open Championships at the Tollcross International Centre.

Typically critical of his performances, Szaranek was not too impressed with his time of 2:06.82 but it was still good enough to fend off second-place Fabian Whitbread (Warrender). "I was hoping to go a wee bit quicker but it is always good to win," said Szaranek, who is coached by his father, John, at the Carnegie Club in Dunfermline.

The teenager will compete at the world championship trials in Sheffield in two weeks' time, before making his first British team appearance, at the European Junior Championships in Poland. "After that, it will be time to knuckle down and concentrate on swimming full-time. I'm going to take a gap year to try and make the Games' team," he said.

"I want to study chemical engineering [at university] but I won't be going anywhere until after Glasgow 2014.

"The next year will be dedicated to swimming. Now that I have left school I'll be able to focus so much more and get the proper rest between sessions."

One Scot who knows all about preparing for major championships is Hannah Miley, who has competed in two Olympics and will attend a third Commonwealths in Glasgow. The world champion-ships in Barcelona next month represents her more immediate concern, though – she won a silver medal in the 400m individual medley in Shanghai two years ago – and her preparation for the trials continued with another two gold medals at Tollcross.

She won the 400m freestyle (4:14.04) and 200m butterfly (2:13.19), her fifth and sixth wins of the Championships, with more success expected today. However, the proximity of the world trials resulted in a few absentees. Craig McNally swam the heats of the 200m backstroke, but withdrew from the final and his Warrender clubmate and Olympian, Craig Benson, pulled out from the 100m breaststroke.

That left Jamie Graham (City of Glasgow) to win the breaststroke in 1:02.31, while Stirling's Ryan Bennett won the backstroke in 2:00.80. Borderer Lucy Hope, who will also compete in Poland, took silver in the 100m backstroke.