The 2022 Commonwealth Video games are set to kick off and in anticipation of the occasion we’ve taken a take a look at all of the athletes from Renfrewshire who're competing.
The video games are being held in Birmingham this 12 months and can start on Thursday, July 28.
They're held each 4 years and see athletes from 56 completely different international locations compete towards each other. The groups represented on the video games are a part of the Commonwealth of Nations, a political affiliation of largely former colonised nations of the British Empire. Regardless of there being 56 member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, 72 groups will compete on the Commonwealth Video games, as numerous dependent territories compete underneath their very own flags.
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Workforce Scotland can be sending 261 athletes to this 12 months’s video games to compete in a wide range of completely different sports activities. 9 of these athletes are from Renfrewshire or presently reside right here.
We caught up with 4 of them earlier than the video games started to ask them how they’ve been making ready for this 12 months’s massive occasion.
First up is monitor bicycle owner Lusia Steele, the 22-year-old can be attending her first Commonwealth Video games as an athlete, and can be competing within the dash, workforce dash, 500m time trial, and the keirin. She has a silver medal from the European Observe Biking Championships within the workforce dash.
She grew up in Erskine and attended Bargarran Major and Park Mains Excessive Faculty.
Lusia, whose teammates are Iona Moir and Lauren Bell, performed down Workforce Scotland’s possibilities at this 12 months’s Video games. She stated: “I believe it’ll be a tough ask for us to do a lot as a workforce however we’ll give it the whole lot we've. Normally in a GB setting I might journey place two and Iona and Lauren are place one so once we come collectively we're shifting positions about to create a workforce, which means I'll transfer into place three.
“It’s additionally exhausting as a result of Iona has simply completed her exams and I’m nonetheless looking for my ft after getting back from six months out with psychological well being points, however as a workforce we're actually excited on the alternative to compete for Scotland.”
And her favorite factor about Renfrewshire?
“It’s received to be the native chip store, but in addition simply how inexperienced it's and the power to be out using some actual good roads solely ten minutes out of your entrance door. Nowhere compares, although much less hills could be supreme as a monitor sprinter!”
Subsequent up is hockey participant Alan Forsyth, a Workforce Scotland veteran who, in Birmingham, can be making his fourth look at a Commonwealth Video games occasion. The 30-year-old from Paisley is presently on 199 Worldwide caps and 114 Worldwide targets. He was named UK Hockey Writers Participant of the Yr and Scotland Males’s Participant of the Yr each in 2018. He started his enjoying profession in Paisley with Kelburne Hockey Membership and moved down south to play within the English league in 2014, the place he went on to be named English Hockey Premier League Gamers Participant of The Season and English Hockey Premier League Prime Purpose Scorer 4 seasons in a row between 2015-19.
The previous Brediland Major and Gleniffer Excessive pupil, who now lives in The Hague, Netherlands, stated if he hadn’t turn into a hockey participant he’d in all probability be a joiner, and his favorite factor about Renfrewshire is that his household and buddies nonetheless reside right here.
Alan can be captaining Workforce Scotland’s Males's Hockey workforce and he had this to say to anyone desirous about taking on his sport: “Get pleasure from it, you’ll make buddies for all times.”
Subsequent up we've two badminton gamers, Adam Corridor, 26, and Ciara Torrance, 22. Adam can be competing within the Workforce Occasion, Males’s Doubles and Combined Doubles. Ciara within the Girls’s Doubles.
Adam, initially from Mauchline, East Ayrshire, has been dwelling in Paisley for the previous six years. He’s a European Silver Medalist 2022, Scottish Open Champion 2019, 8x Scottish Nationwide Champion, and 6x European Tour Titles.
The previous Bellahouston Academy pupil is hopeful of his possibilities, he stated: “I’d say I've a practical medal likelihood in each occasion I’m participating by which is thrilling. It’ll simply
come right down to who performs their greatest when the time comes.”
Adam, who's competing at his second Commonwealth video games, has turn into an enormous fan of Renfrewshire throughout his time right here, saying: “I really like how inexperienced it's, you’re by no means far-off from a pleasant park which turns out to be useful when you could have an over energetic black lab like I do! Plus there’s some very nice espresso outlets in Paisley, shoutout particularly to Brew simply exterior of Paisley Gilmour Avenue.”
He coaches on the Erskine Badmiton Membership and says that anyone pondering of getting concerned within the sport ought to give them a go to. “[It] caters to youngsters of all talents and is a very enjoyable membership to be part of!
“Aside from that, I’d say simply by selecting up a racket and reserving a court docket with some buddies or household is a good way to remain energetic whereas additionally enjoying a reasonably enjoyable sport.”
Ciara holds a Welsh Worldwide combined doubles title, and was a Quarter Finalist on the Denmark Open in 2020, she holds 3x ladies’s doubles nationwide titles, was a Spanish Masters semi finalist in 2021 and was a part of the workforce on the European championships which received a bronze medal.
That is her first Commonwealth Video games, however she’s additionally assured about her possibilities: “I believe the workforce have a very good likelihood of getting a medal within the workforce occasion and I’m feeling
assured about my possibilities within the ladies’s doubles occasion additionally.”
Initially from Prestwick, South Ayrshire, the previous Bellahouston Academy pupil now lives in Ralston the place she had an attention-grabbing expertise making an attempt to maintain herself competitors prepared throughout lockdown.
“I needed to practise motion in a carpark attributable to not with the ability to entry any courts
and as soon as a gaggle of youngsters got here into the automotive park and began copying my actions. “Hopefully they weren’t mocking me and simply liked badminton!”
The opposite athletes from Renfrewshire competing on the Commonwealth Video games are:
Jack Carlin from Paisley (Observe Biking)
Ross Paterson from Paisley (T38 100m)
David Smith born in Paisley and from Barrhead (Excessive Leap)
Cara Kennedy from Paisley (Gymnastics)
Michael Bremner from Kilbarchan (Hockey)
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