GOLD RUSH... FIVE SCOTS WITH THEIR EYES ON PRIZE
MEDAL hopes are high for Team Scotland as the Commonwealth Games return to the UK, with Birmingham ready to host the event which begins this week.
A return of 44 medals at the Gold Coast four years ago was our most successful overseas Games, while Glasgow 2014 remains the greatest of all with 53.
As Scottish athletes prepare to enjoy more ‘home’ comforts in Birmingham, Sportsmail takes a look at five of the many contenders hoping to deliver success.
JAKE WIGHTMAN
THE 28-year-old’s stunning gold medal in the 1500metres at the World Championships in Oregon has catapulted him to a whole new level.
But, as a result, it has increased expectation and he will now be relishing the chance to top the podium again, this time wearing the colours of Team Scotland. Wightman won bronze at the
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and European Championships in 2018 but has been vocal of his disappointment at finishing 10th in the Olympic final in Tokyo last summer.
Now there is no reason why the Scot can’t keep that beaming smile on his face by triumphing in Birmingham. Part of the wow factor with Wightman’s performance at the Worlds was his tactical brilliance in the final 200m as he passed Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to clinch the title with a new personal best of three minutes 29.23 seconds
His success was a lovely story, particularly with the added emotion of his dad, Geoff, commentating on his race in the stadium and he will do the same at the Commonwealths.
With the European Championships in Munich to follow during this manic summer, all eyes will now be on Wightman again.
LAURA MUIR
ONE by one, the monkeys are falling off her back and she is having the last laugh at the biggest events in the world. For so long, the 29-year-old has carried the weight of expectation on the global outdoor stage but now she continues to deliver.
Muir won silver in the 1500m at last summer’s Olympics and she started the feelgood factor for
Great Britain by claiming bronze at the World Championships. It was a triumph which displayed her true grit, considering she suffered a stress reaction to her femur in her right leg in February and was unable to train for two months.
Muir produced a season-best performance of three minutes 55.28 seconds in a breathtakingly quick race to finish third behind two-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay.
Muir will head to Birmingham boosted by the fact she will not be facing Kipyegon, who has decided to skip the event. The Scot will be looking for a medal to complete her set from all the major championships.
‘When I started in my running career I wanted to run all six champs and I’ve done that,’ said Muir. ‘Then the goal was to make the final of all six, and I’ve done that. Now I want to win a medal at all six. It’s five down, one to go.’
DUNCAN SCOTT
AS a swimmer who is no stranger to success, Scott’s build-up to the Games has been far from ideal. The Stirling University star would normally be the leading light for Team Scotland but was struck by Covid and his struggles in recovery led him to miss last month’s World Championships in Budapest.
The 25-year-old won an astonishing six medals — one gold, one silver and four bronze — at the last Commonwealths, making him Scotland’s most decorated athlete at a single Games.
At last year’s Tokyo Olympics, he became the first British athlete to win four medals at a single Games after claiming one gold and three silvers. Further evidence of his disrupted plans arrived with news that Scott will miss the European Championships in Rome which follow the Commonwealths.
So, the build-up to Birmingham could have
been smoother, and there is an unusual question mark hanging over Scott given his interrupted preparation.
But given his form over the years, it would be foolish to expect him not to be motivated to deliver for his country.
KIRSTY GILMOUR
THE badminton star has enjoyed her collection of medals over the years, but the one she really wants will hopefully arrive at these Commonwealths.
Birmingham 2022 will be Gilmour’s fourth Games. Having made her debut as a teenager in Delhi in 2010, she won a silver medal at her home event at Glasgow 2014. A bronze medal followed four years later at the Gold Coast.
Topping the lot with a gold is now very much the aim of Gilmour, Scotland’s highest-performing badminton player among the squad of nine for these Games. The 28-year-old won a silver medal at the European Championships in Madrid earlier this year but she will now target the greatest prize in Birmingham.
‘A gold medal would be huge, career defining, and a career highlight,’ she said. ‘I have to go in thinking about performance first of all — and if I get that right then it will be gold medal-worthy.
‘But I want to complete that set. I’ve got far too many silver medals especially in my collection, so that gold is on my mind.’
NEIL FACHIE
THE absence of
Katie Archibald is a major blow for
Team Scotland, but there are still high hopes for medals among the cycling squad.
None more so than Fachie, who will compete in the para-track cycling which is being staged at Lee Valley VeloPark in London.
The 38-year-old won gold medals with pilot Matt Rotherham in both the time trial and sprint at the Gold Coast, setting World and Games records in sprint qualifying and a Games record in the time trial.
Fachie’s triumph Down Under made it a double-double, having also won the same events at Glasgow 2014 with former pilot Craig MacLean.
The Aberdonian — who suffers from congenital eye condition retinitis pigmentosa — has suggested this might not be his final Commonwealths even as he approaches 40.
‘I’m not thinking beyond Paris (2024 Olympics) at this point, because there’s no point and I’ll evaluate things along the way,’ said Fachie.
‘It would be a big ask to keep going for another four years to another Commonwealth Games, but I know others who have done it.’