YOUNG swimming star Simon Le Couilliard has made one of the toughest decisions of his life – to miss the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

The dedicated athlete has his opening race at 10 am on Thursday morning and wants to remain as focused and rested as possible.

‘I’ve spoken with Paul about it, and the rest of the team, and the last thing I want is to be stood around for hours the night before the biggest race of my life,’ he said.

Simon (19) is racing in the 200m butterfly and hopes to knock three seconds off his personal best in order to make the British team for the European championships.

And the modest youngster, who has his sights on the Beijing Olympics, believes missing the opening ceremony will put him halfway towards smashing his own record.

‘I know that the majority of the top swimmers from Australia and South Africa are staying in the village so at least I won’t be alone.’ A bus will be taking Team Jersey to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday evening at 6 pm for the 8 pm start.

They are not expected to be back until after midnight.

‘The last thing I want to do is to be stood up for six hours the night before a big race.

I was thinking about it a lot before I came, but once I got here I knew it was the right thing to do.

‘It’s not as if I can pick up an injury, but I don’t really do a lot of walking normally so my legs can really ache after something like that.’ Team manager Paul du Feu added: ‘Simon is a very focused individual and he knows what he is doing.

We spoke about it at length and it was ultimately his decision.

He is a brave lad to opt out of a part of the Games which many people will rate as the highlight, but he knows what he wants to get out of it and I fully support him.’