Scotland’s Mixed Doubles pair Imogen Bankier and Robert Blair cast aside their disappointing morning semi-final loss to husband and wife duo Chris and Gabby Adcock by bouncing back in style to win Bronze. On a good day for Badminton Kirsty Gilmour also guaranteed herself a medal, beating number four seed Jing Yi Tee of Malaysia to go into tomorrow’s Gold medal match.
Bankier and Blair were defeated in the semi-finals by number one seeds Chris and Gabby Adcock, 21-14 21-14. The experienced Scottish duo picked themselves up, returning in the evening session to take on the Malaysian fifth seeds Peng Soon Chan and Lai Pei Jing.
The Scots trailed 15-12 in the first game but, in a remarkable display under pressure, they won nine of the next 11 points to take the opener 21-17. The pair then went on to win the second set 21-11 on their third match point and claimed the Bronze medal.
“To win here is by far the most satisfying thing I have done in my career,” said Blair. “It will be something I will always look back on as being incredibly special. After all the effort and hard work you go through, to actually come away with tangible success that we can look at in years to come is just brilliant.”
Bankier added, “It’s been such an emotional week, the whole season building up has been sometimes very stressful. We have had some amazing highs but some terrible lows as well and it’s all been for this tournament. This week was difficult from the start and we were really up against it with the draw and the disappointment this morning when we lost. I really think we could have done better and we didn’t play our best. To come back from that, pick ourselves back up, and come out and perform this evening was a challenge but I am incredibly happy with our Bronze medal. It’s very special to do it in front of a home crowd as well.”
The pair claimed the first medal in Mixed Doubles since Dan Travers and the current Scotland Team Manager, Christine Black, won in 1986.
In an exciting Women’s Singles semi-final match against number two seed Jing Yi Tee, Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour, won the match, putting her into the Gold medal final tomorrow.
“To have this whole crowd behind you, although there are a few Malaysian supporters in, which I appreciated, it’s fantastic,” said Gilmour. “The feeling is just, I can’t explain it, it’s such a nice place to be and it’s exactly how I planned it going in my head. For it to turn out this way is just a dream.”
Gilmour battled back from 19-10 down in the second set to eventually win the match 21-13, 21-19. “I said to myself I either was going to just give the two points away, reset for the third set and start again, as if it was love all, or I could just keep going. Then I got one point and another point, then I was like, ‘you can’t stop now.’ I just had to keep going. I’m going to enjoy watching that later.”
Gilmour will now go on to play Canada’s Michelle Li, which is set to be a thrilling final. Looking ahead to playing the third seed she said: “I have never played Michelle Li so it will be very interesting. I am sure she has some notes on me, and I am sure we have some notes on her so I think it’s going to be tough tomorrow if we can both dig in and hold on.”
“Now I have got a medal guaranteed it’s such a nice feeling but that in no way means I am going to let up at all, so we are going to have to see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully I will be feeling physically 100%, as I am at the moment.”
Gilmour will be on court on the eleventh and last day of competition for the Women’s Singles final at 11.00am.

Photo Credit: Duncan McEwan