HIGH PRESSURE

Games and a lot of it will come down to the draw.”

Seeded fourth, the Glasgow player has been placed in the same half of the draw as second seed Saina Nehwal of India. PV Sindhu and 2014 gold medallist Michelle Li are in the other side of proceedings. It makes life slightly easier for Gilmour, who knows what the world’s best are capable of.

The European silver medallist in 2016 and 2017, she says the three weeks she recently spent competing in the Indian League has been crucial in catapulting her development ahead of these Games. Signed up by KIRSTY GILMOUR the Bengaluru Blasters, she earned cash and invaluable court time against the sport’s elite.

“It was the best three weeks of my life, honestly. In terms of development, in terms of being in a team atmosphere, getting six or seven matches against top-20 girls.

“If I go to a tournament and play well, you maybe get one or two games against the really top girls but to get those games back to back was huge for me, because I don’t really have girls to train with here.

“I played against two of my main competitors, one of the Indian girls in particular who’ll probably be top seed and I took her to three sets. That was key for me.

“I’d do the Indian League again in a heartbeat. It was an eye-opener for people here about the impact the sport has in Asia when I was posting on social media about it. We were playing in front of about 4,000 but in badminton you can’t have too huge an arena because the sport is so intricate, so it has to be kept quite intimate.

“But it was still really great. We don’t get that sense here. Once every few years at the Olympics maybe, but over there it’s like the Premier League week in week out. It’s their sporting event, the players are their equivalent of football teams in terms of support.”

0 Kirsty Gilmour: Silver in Glasgow.

“Mytrackrecordinthebig eventsisgood.soi’musing allthatexperience,goodand bad,forthegoldcoast”