A number of current and prospective Team Scotland athletes were in action over the weekend – we look back at some of the highlights.
Cycling
Gold, silver and two bronze for Katie Archibald and two bronze medals for Neah Evans were the Scottish highlights from a hugely successful outing for the Great Britain Cycling team at the World Track Cycling Championships in Roubaix, France.
After gold and silver at the Olympic Games and three gold medals at the European Championships earlier this month, Archibald capped an outstanding year with a dominant display to take the World Omnium title for the second time, the first coming in 2017. Silver in the Points race completed a packed schedule that also saw her team up with Evans, Megan Barker and Josie Knight in the Team Pursuit and a second bronze with Evans in the Madison.
Archibald’s total of four medals equals the best ever haul by a British women at a single World Championships.
Judo
Dylan Munro (-60kg) and Malin Wilson (-57kg) picked up their second medals in as many weeks as they both won silver medals at the Malaga European Open. For Wilson it was a repeat of her silver last weekend in Dubrovnik while Munro went one better than last week’s bronze medal win with back-to-back podium finishes setting him up well for next month’s European U23 Championships.
Badminton
Kirsty Gilmour put in a string of superb performances in Odense to reach the Women’s Singles semi-finals of the Victor Denmark Open, the first time a singles player from Scotland has ever got to the semi-final of a tournament at this level.
Gilmour defeated last week’s Dutch Open winner Kristin Kuuba of Estonia, followed by a thrilling 21-18, 20-22, 26-24 win over Kim Gaeun of South Korea and another three-game match with Clara Azurmendi of Spain to reach the last four. She pushed her World top-ten ranked South Korean opponent An Seyoung all the way before going down 13-21, 21-12, 16-21.
Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles after beating French pair Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar in straight sets. Hall partnered Julie MacPherson in the Mixed Doubles, with MacPherson also in action with Ciara Torrance in the Women’s Doubles.
Gilmour, Hall and Dunn will be back in action next week at the YONEX French Open in Paris.
Squash
Rory Stewart won a five set battle with England’s Sam Todd in the final of the Texas Open to take his biggest title to date. Stewart emerged victorious 12-10 10-12 17-19 11-5 11-3 after a gruelling 80 minutes of play.
Alison Thomson was also on top form, winning her first PSA title at the Gibraltar Open without dropping a game. Katriona Allen was also in action, progressing to the quarter-finals where top seed Tessa ter Sluis proved too strong.
Hockey
While neither side took one of the coveted spots at the 2023 World Cup, third place for Scotland’s women and fifth for the men was a positive outing at the World Cup European Qualifiers. The women’s tournament was held in Pisa and the Scots began well, winning 3-0 over Poland to progress to the semi-finals. There they faced Wales for a place in the final and a chance to play for the single World Cup place on offer. After a goalless draw after normal time, it went to running penalties where Scottish hopes were ended as the Welsh took it 3-1. The third-place play-off saw Scotland rally well to defeat Belarus 2-1 and end their campaign on a high.
Meanwhile in Cardiff the men’s side faced Austria in their opening game, with recent form suggesting this would be a close match. Close it certainly was and, for the second time in as many months, the sides drew in normal time with the Austrians winning in a shoot-out. The cruel knock-out format of these qualifiers meant this was the end of World Cup hopes as Scotland entered the play-offs for 5th-8th place. They put all that frustration into their next two games, beating Poland 10-2 before also taking the win over Russia 4-2 to move above them in the world rankings.