Banff shooter Kay Copland landed the first medal for Scotland – a gold – at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India today (Tues 14 October).

And within minutes of her winning the 50 metre Rifle Prone, Rory McAlpine from Lasswade in Midlothian doubled Scotland’s medal tally by winning bronze in the boys’ 50 metre Rifle Prone event.

“It’s beyond than my wildest dreams to compete in an event like this and it feels absolutely amazing to win the gold medal,” said 18 year old Kay.

“I didn’t think I’d ever get gold, I didn’t think I’d ever get a medal so I’m so happy. The event is quite a high standard and I know some of the people so I was quite nervous before the start.”

Seventeen year old Rory finished behind shooters from England and Northern Ireland. Had it not been for one stray shot in the final, which he recovered quickly from, he might have finished higher.

“I had one shocking shot right in the middle of the final on my fifth shot and thought I had ruined my chances but I managed to put it out of my mind and get on with it,” he said. “I’m very and relieved to in the bronze medal I was very proud to be standing on the podium.”

Equally delighted was Sinclair Bruce, the Scottish team’s shooting manager from Linlithgow. “It’s obviously a great start for the team to get a gold and bronze on the same day and they came in very different ways,” he said.

“Rory had a rocky start in the 60 shot qualification. He came off, had a chat and he went back down and he was like a different shooter. Whilst Kay was steady all the way through.

“Coming into today I was hopeful of two medals. We didn’t really know what the competition was like but I knew what Kay and Rory were capable of.”

Elsewhere in the event Scotland’s three 1500 metre runners all qualified for Wednesday’s final. Livingston 17 year old Chris O’Hare finished joint first in his heat in a time of 3.52 minutes. Beth Potter, 16 from Bearsden, completed her heat in third. Carnoustie’s Eilish McColgan, watched by Olympic medallist mother Liz, finished fifth in her heat but her time, 4.32 minutes, was quicker than the winner of Potter’s heat, qualifying her for the final as the fastest loser.

“I had left too much to catch up, a big gap after 800, which was too much to close,” said Eilish afterwards. “Tomorrow night I will have to stay with them no matter what pace they go off at.”

On the field Barrhead’s Daniel Carlin finished seventh in the shot putt. And Glenrothes javelin thrower Lisa Glover gave more encouraging signs of her return to form after elbow injury, finishing fourth in last night’s final. The 18 year old medical student, the Scottish team’s flag bearer in Sunday’s opening ceremony said, “I threw 42.52 meters tonight and the last time I did that was in May. I’m very happy to be able to end the season over 40 and get as close to the medals as I could.

“I feel everything is there, I had a slight in my right arm which brought the javelin up a wee bit, but most of them are going straight.

“My PB is 46 metres and in the final tonight the girls in front of me threw 49, 45 and 44 metres. It was pretty close.”

In the table tennis event Edinburgh’s Craig Howieson completed the domination of his round robin group with a speedy 11-8 11-5 11-6 dismissal of Warren Li Kam Wa (Mauritius). “I’m starting to feel a lot sharper now, feeling like I’m getting my strokes grooved,” he said afterwards. “So I should be ready for the final round now.” Craig will now go into the draw for the 16 top players.

Badminton players Martin Campbell (Edinburgh) and Paul Van Rietvelde (Longniddry) both won their singles matches and progress to the quarter finals. Boxers Josh Taylor (Edinburgh) and Jonathan Slowey (Glasgow) also won their matches to progress to the next round.