Scots seal best away medal tally
TEAM Scotland has achieved its best ever performance at an away Commonwealth Games.
David McMath took gold, and Scotland’s 30th medal in total, in the Double Trap on day seven of the competition.
Chief Executive of sportscotland, Stewart Harris, said: “Once again Team Scotland has delivered on the global stage with a string of sensational performances.”
TEAM Scotland has set a new record of number of medals won at an overseas Commonwealth Games with the tally for Gold Coast 2018 reaching 30 medals overnight.
Scotland’s previous best was coincidentally also set in Australia, with the squad winning 29 medals at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. But with four days of competition still remaining in the Gold Coast, the Scots have already surpassed their previous record.
It was Scotland’s shooters who ultimately won the couple of medals needed to overtake Melbourne’s total. Linda Pearson, who is competing in her second Games having made her debut in Delhi in 2010, put in a fantastic performance to win bronze in the women’s double trap competition.
That took Team Scotland’s tally to 29, equalling the Melbourne total, and soon after, the new record was set when Pearson’s fellow shooter David McMath won gold in the men’s double trap.
McMath is originally from Castle Douglas but is now Glasgow-based as he studies civil engineering at Strathclyde. The 21-year-old, who is making his Games debut in Gold Coast, will stop competing in the double trap after these Games as the discipline is being dropped from the Olympic programme and so he could not have given himself a better sendoff from the event.
Scotland is already guaranteed another two medals at least, with boxers Reece McFadden and John Docherty both reaching the semi-finals, which, with no third-place box-off taking place, ensures they will return home with at least bronze medals.
Docherty in particular put in an impressive performance, defeating one of the favourites for the gold medal, Ben Whittaker of England. However, Docherty has form in beating Whittaker as he also defeated the Englishman to win Commonwealth Youth Games gold in 2015.
And 22-year-old McFadden from Bellshill, who is tipped for gold having won bronze at Glasgow 2014, was also in impressive form, defeating Pakistan to move into the last four.
He is only interested in one colour of medal in Gold coast though, tweeting in the aftermath of his quarter-final victory: “Won my fight against Pakistan and secured myself a bronze medal. Came for one colour though and that is the gold.”
Scotland has already picked up a handful of medals on the lawn bowling greens and their strong performances continued with the women’s pair of Lesley Doig and Claire Johnston continuing their winning streak to move to three wins from three matches after defeating the Cook Islands.
In the squash, Lisa Aitken and Alison Thomson, made a strong start to the women’s doubles competition by securing a 2-0 win over the Cayman Islands while in the table tennis, Craig Howieson and Gavin Rumgay defeated Northern Island 3-0 in the men’s doubles. The swimming has now concluded but there is still action in the pool, with the diving competition having just begun.
James Heatly, whose grandfather, Peter Heatly, won five Commonwealth medals in diving, including three golds, qualified for the 1m springboard final, as did his compatriot Lucas Thomson, with Grace Reid, who partners Tom Daly when representing GB, still to come.