Hugetestslie aheadfor Gilmour

Bothwell badminton star Kirsty Gilmour is all eyes on her preparation for the Commonwealth Games this summer as she enters a busy period of tournaments.

The 28-year-old has represented Team GB and Scotland at various events before and will be there again this summer during Birmingham’s hosting of Commonwealth action.

2022 will see Gilmour travel across the world, both before and after the games as part of her schedule. It’s demanding in a game where the level of physicality has sky-rocketed in recent years.

But it’s a challenge the two-time Commonwealth Games medallist is willing to rise to, albeit a couple of holiday dates scattered throughout will help in her recovery.

Kirsty, who took silver at Glasgow 2014 and bronze at Gold Cost 2018, said:“i have a big run before the European Championships in April. I will then maybe have a week’s holiday!

“Then we will have another trip to Asia, perhaps Indonesia, before the Commonwealth Games this summer.

“Then we have the World Championships in Japan just 10 days after the Commonwealth Games, which is going to be tough.

“We have the Japan Open soon after that so we are just going to stay for that. I’ll then get another holiday after that and then by that time, we’ll have hit October.

“Then we will have the Danish and French Opens. We aren’t one of these sports where the athletes get a month off. You can’t afford that, as you will just fall so far behind.

“That’s what my brain tells me anyway, so we are all year round. We’re quite a muscular endurance sport, as opposed to a few years ago, when it was power.

“The physicality of the women’s game has gone through the roof. Everyone is around 5kg lighter because of the way the game has gone. We try to replicate that in training so you don’t get a shock in a game.”