There was a fantastic fifth place for Finlay Davidson in the men’s lightweight category in para powerlifting in the first medal event of the Games. Starting in Group B, Finlay lapped up the home support with his family and friends present, to lift his first attempt at 157kg with ease. 161kg in round two increased his score, before a lift of 166kg saw him finish on 141.4 points for fifth overall.
He said: “For it being my first proper home competition to be the Commonwealth Games was surreal – first medal and massive crowd, a lot of my fans and a lot of cheering for the only Scot, so I had to take it all in.
“I think coming into this sport, this was the first major competition I was aiming for, and to be here is quite an achievement and to come out as 5th – got to take it. It is good banter to be against people who are usually teammates; unfortunately, we were in different groups, so it was a bit different, but I got to stay in the back and cheer [gold medallist] Mark Swan on – as much as he is English – but it was unreal to watch him win, and I’m so proud of him.”
Ten days after winning two Para Canoe World Cup golds in Montreal, Hope Gordon impressed on her way to ninth place in the women’s heavyweight category. Making history as the first female para powerlifter competing for Team Scotland, Hope had three clean lifts, moving up from 82kg, to 86kg to 90kg, much to the enjoyment on the vocal home crowd.
Hope said: “I’d say it’s probably terrifyingly incredible. It’s definitely a bit nerve wracking walking out onto a stage, I’m not used to that at all, but the crowd was just insane and I’m used to seeing one saltire in the crowd and it’s always really easy to spot my family but just to see an absolute sea of saltires is just incredible, I’ll remember that forever.
“The main thing that I really wanted was to get the first two lifts as good lifts and then just try and go for it on the last one. To get three good lifts, nine white lights, coming into this project of trying to get here I definitely underestimated how hard it is to actually get a good lift in a competition in this sport, so that’s definitely a step on and happy to get that 90 kilos. I would’ve loved to get a bit closer to the 100 but looking back in a few years’ time I’m not going to remember the number I lifted but I’ll remember the noise out there.”
Basketball
Scotland started with a win against Guyana 21-14.
Kyle Jimenez – “First game of the tournament, I think a few nerves for some of the guys – for a lot of the guys it’s the first time being here. It’s our first time playing at an international competition as a group as well, so it’s just reading each other. A couple of minutes into the game we started clicking and we knew what we could do as a team.
“Happy that we got the win – we need to improve on the first couple of minutes but apart from that as a team, we’re really happy.
“Steven Bird’s been amazing with our recovery and our S&C, so he’s going to get us right in between the games. We’ve got a recovery session and some fuel sessions to get back into being ready to perform for another 10-minute game and then we’ve got Australia this evening.”
Then, they took down the Cayman Islands 22-13. They closed out the day with a tough battle against the Aussies, losing out 14-21.
Fraser Malcolm said: “A bit disappointed with the result against Australia but stepping back and looking at the day as a whole we won the two matches that we needed to and so we just need to regroup, refocus and and look ahead to Sunday.”
Tomorrow the competition gets underway for the women’s running team and both the men’s and women’s wheelchair teams.
Boxing
Next door in the boxing arena, first to fight for Scotland was Aaron Cullen (55kg) who suffered a devastating loss in a close bout against India. Leo Church (65kg) lifted the team back up with a convincing win against Nauru and moves to his next round on Sunday.
He said: “I showed a bit of class out there. I made the most of the occasion and I got the ball rolling for Team Scotland.”
Bowls
In the women’s pairs, Caroline Brown and Beth Riva got off to a sticky start, losing their opening match in a tie-break to Jersey. The Scots lost the first set 3-2, but came back strong in the second set with a 10-0 win to level the contest. A close tie-break went to Jersey for the win. Brown and Riva will face the Falklands tomorrow at 16:25.
In the mixed para pairs B2/B3 VI, Scotland defeated South Africa two sets to nil in their first of two matches of the day. Robert Barr and Mary Stevenson, with directors Sarah Jane Ewing and Jim Aitken, won the first set 8-3 and the second set 6-1 against the plucky South Africans. This evening the pair face New Zealand at 20:40 and will face Australia and England tomorrow.
Jason Banks followed up his opening day victory in the men’s singles with a 2-0 win over Mohammed ‘Chico’ Qureshi of Pakistan. Banks was on scintillating form with a dominant opening set win of 16-2. He was equally impressive in the second set where he took the win 7-3. Banks is back in action at 9.55am tomorrow morning.
Jason said: “I’m delighted just to get the wins on the board from the first two games more than anything. It’s such a hard carpet to get consistent line and weight on. I’m just happy to get the wins in any of the games to be honest, hopefully I can keep it coming.”
He has history with his opponent, having eaten in Mohammed’s restaurant before. He said: “It’s lovely food you get. Chico’s such a nice guy, he just keeps on coming with the massive naan breads that he’s got so if anyone’s wanting to have an Indian then I’d recommend his restaurant Alishan.”
Looking ahead, Jason prepares for tomorrow’s game. He said: “It’ll just be trying to reset and go again in the morning so it’s going to be an early start. Just see how it goes and do my best, I think it’s going to be a really hard game so if I can compete with Fiji in the morning then I’ll be happy.”
Netball
Scotland will play the opening match of the Glasgow 2026 netball competition when they take on New Zealand at 9am tomorrow in the Hydro.
Looking ahead to the match, Beth Goodwin said, “The venue is looking amazing. From the opening ceremony it’s had a complete turnaround – it’s very patriotic and Scottish looking. When you see the seats it reminds you of how many people are going to watch you, and with it being a Glasgow crowd you know it’s going to be loud. We’re all really excited to play.
“I think we can really take the game to New Zealand, they’re ranked as one of the best teams in the world and we want to take it to them, play how we want to play, and execute our game plan. We’re really excited to do that against one of the best teams in the world.”
Swimming
After an incredible first night in the pool [READ MORE], Scotland’s swimmers will look to maintain that momentum into Day 2. On Saturday, Angharad Evans takes on her first event of the championships – the 100m Breaststroke. Angharad holds the four fastest times in the world this year in the event. Off the back of their 200m Backstroke final appearances, Katie Shanahan and Holly McGill will turn their focus to the 100m event.
Gymnastics
Team Scotland’s men gave their all in the Team Event final tonight [READ MORE] On Saturday it is the turn of the women in Team Event, before the All-Around on Sunday, which both Reuben Ward and Cameron Lynn qualified for after their efforts this evening. Ward will also go in three individual apparatus finals later in the week, with Lynn also progressing to two finals.
