Roy-Allan Burch hopes months of hard preparation will culminate with glory at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The 28-year-old sprint swimmer has targetted a gold medal and is determined to see his vision become a reality.

“I want to be the best there and that is what I am pushing for,” Burch said. “It would be an amazing experience to put in the bank and I would basically be the biggest champion I have ever been in the region.

“That is what I want so I’m going to go for that and whatever happens does not define me as an athlete and who I am. I still have goals beyond what is to come at the Commonwealth Games.

“It would be an amazing experience but it is still just a stepping stone when it comes down to it. I would still have to take that and evaluate what I did there and keep on moving, the end goal obviously being the 2016 Olympics.”

Burch has left no stone unturned in preparation for the upcoming Games and is now counting on everything to come together when it matters most to achieve his goal.

“It has been a long, hard year,” he said. “It has been especially hard the last couple of months; everything culminating and preparing my mind and body to be at its best.

“I’m pretty excited and just trying to stay calm right now and just be a little more refined and sharp enough to be at my best everyday.”

Encouraging performances on the long course this year have done Burch’s confidence the world of good. The first 50 metres he swam in the 100 freestyle at last month’s Validus National Long Course Championships at the National Sports Centre was faster than his first 50 at last summer’s FINA World Championships in Barcelona where he set the national record.

He also set a national record and personal best in the 50 butterfly at last month’s championships on home soil and came close to setting personal bests in the 50 and 100 freestyle.

“I was pretty close to my best times which I have never done leading up to a meet and that early in the season,” Burch said. “I have never been that close to my 100 free before, so that just shows that my endurance and speed is up. This shows that things are working and I am moving in the right direction.”

Burch will have his work cut out in Glasgow competing against the likes of British Olympic swimmer Adam Brown and multiple World Championships bronze medallist George Bovell of Trinidad.

It is a challenge he is more than up for.

“Those guys have swam fast,” Burch said. “But I do not know what they are going to do and they do not know what I am going to do. It is just all about racing and who is going to be the best on that day.”

Burch is one of two swimmers flying Bermuda’s banner in Glasgow, the other being Julian Fletcher who captured gold medals in the 100 and 200 breaststroke at this month’s Caribbean Island Swimming Championships in Barbados.