Commonwealth Games Scotland have announced the 25 strong team that will represent Team Scotland at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
19 of the athletes selected were part of the team that competed at the home Games at Glasgow 2014 and, spurred on by a capacity crowd at Hampden, delivered Scotland’s best Commonwealth Games medal haul for 20 years.
Since that tally of one gold, two silver and one bronze, the sport of athletics has gone from strength to strength with a record 15 athletes selected for the Olympic Games and six for the Paralympic Games at Rio 2016.
The Gold Coast 2018 Para-Sport programme will surpass Glasgow 2014 to become the largest in Commonwealth Games history and Team Scotland will be represented on the track by three exceptional athletes.
Having broken her own World record to take gold over 200m at the World Para-Athletics Championships in London, going on to take a second gold in the 100m and bronze in the 400m, Sammi Kinghorn moves up in distance to tackle the 1500m and Marathon in Gold Coast.
At just 21 years old she is the senior member of a strong Scottish trio in the para-events, joined by 17-year-old Rio 2016 Paralympic silver and bronze medallist Maria Lyle and 18-year-old Amy Carr, who won two golds and a bronze at this summer’s IPC World Junior Championships in Switzerland.
Rodger Harkins, Performance Director at scottishathetics said: ‘I want to offer my congratulations to the athletes and coaches selected. They have really performed well in the past year and made a commitment to the Commonwealth Games and to a Gold Coast event being held in April.
‘I’m very pleased with the application and planning that’s already being shown and has been shown over the past few months.
‘When you take in the way Scottish athletes and coaches have stepped up over the past two years – and their involvement in the Olympics in Rio and then London 2017 – then we see the strength and the depth. Here we are seeing that reflected in a Team Scotland selection for athletics.’
Team Scotland Chef de Mission Jon Doig OBE said: ‘Congratulations to all selected today, as we welcome a great mix of experienced athletes and those who will be part of Team Scotland for the first time. We have a strong tradition of success, right from the first Games, in both Athletics and Boxing, with results continuing real upward momentum since 2014.’
SELECTED ATHLETES (25)
Name: Hometown/Lives
Chris Bennett: Glasgow/Glasgow
Andrew Butchart: Dunblane /Dunblane
Mark Dry: Burghead, Moray/Loughbourough
Callum Hawkins: Bridge of Weir/Elderslie
Guy Learmonth: Berwick/Berwick
Chris O’Hare: West Linton/Boston, USA
Robbie Simpson: Banchory/Banchory
Allan Smith: Edinburgh/Edinburgh
David Smith: Barrhead/Birmingham
Jax Thoirs: Glasgow/Glasgow
Jake Wightman: Edinburgh/Hampton Wick, Surrey
Amy Carr: Stockton-on-Tees/Stockton-on-Tees
Zoey Clark: Aberdeen/Aberdeen
Eilidh Doyle: Kinross/Frome
Rachel Hunter: Ayr/Ayr
Sammi Kinghorn: Middlethird/Glasgow
Maria Lyle: Dunbar/Dunbar
Holly McArthur: Kilsyth/Glasgow
Kirsten McAslan: Edinburgh/Manchester
Eilish McColgan: Carnoustie/Manchester
Emma Nuttall: Edinburgh/Loughborough
Lynsey Sharp: Edinburgh/Loughborough
Kelsey Stewart: Stonehaven/Stonehaven
Stephanie Twell: Farnbourough/Aldershot
Lennie Waite: Paisley/Houston, Texas