SEVEN MAGNIFICENT HOPES

High-flying Scots all bidding for Gold Coast greatness

THE most successful overseas Games in the history of Team Scotland. No ifs, no buts, no quibbling about what could have been.

The Scots have been set the target of winning at least 30 medals at the Commonwealth Games in April.

And the really exciting part of that goal? When it comes to collecting precious metal, our finest track-and-field, swimming and cycling stars are likely to do much of the heavy lifting.

Those remain the Big Three of any multi-sport games, the blue-riband disciplines that generate the most excitement.

What good fortune — and good planning — it is, then, that Scotland will head to the Gold Coast so well placed in all three.

With team management publicly declaring their ambition to better the 29-medal haul from Melbourne back in 2006, the public will also be looking for the most popular sports to shine. As they did 12 years ago.

In 2006, the most recent Australian hosting of these Games, the Scottish swimmers bagged a dozen medals, six of them gold, while a pre-knighthood Chris Hoy led the men to team sprint gold.

We even picked up a silver and bronze on the track, courtesy of Chris Baillie and Lee McConnell.

With so many elite competitors already selected and working towards a training camp on the Sunshine Coast beginning in mid-March, then, Sportsmail picks out seven potential stars from across the three most high-profile sports.

Callum Hawkins – marathon

A genuine distance-running prospect whose fourth-place finish in the World Championships last summer, on the back of a top-ten finish in the Rio Olympics, marked him out as the real deal.

The marathon is ferociously competitive at Commonwealth level, with the Kenyans able to pick three athletes almost at random and be guaranteed a strong showing.

Home favourite Michael Shelley, the gold medal winner from Glasgow 2014, who lives on the Gold Coast, will also take some beating.

But 25-year-old Hawkins is singled-minded in his approach, ignoring the lure of fast times and declaring: ‘I’m out to get medals first.’

Andrew Butchart – 5,000 and 10,000metres

Never short of confidence, Butchart has developed into a dangerous competitor at world level, especially over 5k.

He finished sixth in last summer’s World Championships in London, smashing the Scottish record in the process — and earning the praise of none other than Mo Farah, who called the late-blooming 26-year-old ‘the man’ for his support running in that final.

Now that Farah is moving on to the marathon, Butchart has a chance to prove himself — and to get in among the African nations likely to dominate anything from 5,000metres up.

Lynsey Sharp – 800 and 4x400 metres

Perhaps the most inspirational storyline from Glasgow 2014 involved Sharp spending the eve of her final, her big moment, on a drip in the Games Village medical centre — then rising from her sick bed to claim silver in front of a bouncing Hampden crowd.

She is hoping to avoid the same level of drama this year, although the 27year-old suspects that a little adversity actually brings out the best in her. Engaged in a respectful medal-collecting rivalry with boyfriend Butchart, who is playing catch-up to the former European champion.

Ross Murdoch – 200, 100m breaststroke and medley relay

Another star who shone brightest at Glasgow 2014, Murdoch admits to having subsequently struggled after performing well below par at the Rio Olympics in 2016. The man who spoiled Michael Jamieson’s coronation party at Tollcross heads to Australia in a better mood, with the 23-year-old’s form beginning to build. All the Scottish swimmers have plenty to live up to, with memories of Melbourne 2006 — when the aquatics contingent provided Team Scotland with six golds, three silvers and three bronzes — guaranteed to provide easy comparisons with the current generation.

Hannah Miley – 200 and 400m individual medley

Miley knows all about Melbourne. She was there as a Team Scotland swimmer a dozen years ago, combining studying for her Highers with an introduction to elite Games competition.

Should she defend her 400 IM title in Australia, the 28-year-old will become the first Scot to win three gold medals across successive Commonwealth Games.

Having battled through illness and terrible conditions to triumph in Delhi, Miley rode the wave of home emotion to triumph in

Glasgow four years later. A back-to-back-to-back triumph would mark her out as arguably the greatest Games competitor Scotland has ever seen.

Duncan Scott – 100, 200m freestyle, medley, relays.

Man-of-many-talents Scott has been a World Champion twice, runner-up once and has bagged a pair of Olympic silver medals.

But all of those medals have come as part of a relay team. Now he is chasing individual gongs for his collection. And few doubt his ability to get the job done.

Still just 20, the Gold Coast will be his second Games, Scott having played a part in the silver-medal winning Team Scotland 4x200 relay squad in Glasgow.

Katie Archibald - cycling

Right now, the only questions about Scotland’s best cyclist surround the precise number of events she’ll be allowed to enter.

Ask Archibald and she’ll inevitably answer with a question of her own: ‘How many are there?’ An unbelievably talented rider who will play a huge role for Team GB at the Cycling World Championships just weeks before the Commonwealth Games, the 23-year-old insists she will be able to peak twice in quick succession.

Hence her stated desire to compete in the individual pursuit, scratch race, points race, road time trial and road race.

In an interview last year, she summed up her approach with an apparently well-known Australian turn of phrase. ‘Throw enough s*** at the wall and some of it will stick. But make no mistake. Your wall’s still covered in s***,’ said the straight-talking Katie. This is going to be so much fun.