Jamieson stated his intention to go out fast after the morning heat and he was true to his word, establishing a clear lead by the half-way point.

Although the field came back at him in the second half of the race, Jamieson held them off to win in two minutes 10.43 seconds with Bath ITC-team-mate Andrew Willis in second. Jamieson said: "I paid for it towards the end, but at this stage of training I am just trying to test myself.

"That front-end speed is exactly what I am trying to improve on in the next couple of years and in order to do that I am going to have to keep forcing myself to be uncomfortable on the first 100."

Among many things that stand out about Jamieson is his ability to adapt to any situation.

In the 100m breaststroke on Friday night he had to swim from lane eight – where a swimmer has no idea what the fastest qualifiers are doing in the centre lanes – after a misjudgment in his heat saw him have to go through a swim-off.

It mattered little as the Glasgow-born swimmer returned to take gold in his best mid-season time. Jamieson said: "I just love racing in the finals and I think sometimes the heats are a weakness for me because sometimes I leave myself in the outside lane, which isn't intentional.

"Again that is something I am going to have to work on to make sure I am in the race and in the middle lanes for the finals."

Jamieson also displays the consistency characteristic of top athletes across sport, notably since the 2011 World Championships where he finished fifth.

He added: "A few years ago I looked at the rankings and all the guys that were at the top challenging for medals. They were always posting times around the 2:10 mark, which was something I wasn't very good at.

"I used to be very much just a swimmer's swimmer and could only peak once or twice a year.

"So again that is something I have been working on, trying to improve that consistency and take little chips off my time rather than big chunks at the end of the season and it seems to be working."