If you weren’t warm enough from the latest blast of summer heat, the Commonwealth Games is about to raise Scotland’s sporting temperature.
The festival of sport lands in Birmingham this week and brings a huge selection of the world’s best athletes to UK shores.
Team Scotland have a great deal to be optimistic about. They have selected a big squad of athletes across more than a dozen sports, with the intent of not just challenging for medals – but bringing them home.
The north of Scotland will provide some of Scotland’s best medal hopes at the Games.
Aberdeen’s Neil Fachie is one of the most successful GB paralympic athletes. He already has four Commonwealth gold medals to his name and will be defending is Tandem B sprint and kilo titles this summer.
Put Fachie on a track and he wants to win. Pure and simple. His reputation speaks for itself and the hunger to win medals has never diminished.
At 38, he has shown no signs of slowing down and barring any catastrophes, Fachie will be among the contenders for Games medals this summer.
Neah Evans has furnished her reputation as one of not just Scotland, but GB’s best medal hopes on two wheels.
A relative unknown before her double-medal performance on the Gold Coast in 2018, Evans has since become a world and European medalist and won silver at the Olympics last year.
With Katie Archibald’s unbelievable misfortune ruling her out of the Games, Cuminestown’s Evans will spearhead the female Scottish riders this summer.
Under her wing will be Ellie Stone and Lauren Bell, two newcomers to the scene, but already with great pedigree. Meanwhile, Strathpeffer’s Finn Crockett is among the best-ranked riders in the UK this year.
Zoey Clark has represented Aberdeen on the international stage in a GB vest but relishes doing it for Scotland.
She is part of an athletics team packed with north talent, from discus supremo Kirsty Law, to the women’s 4x100m relay team which includes runners from Torphins, Keith and Orkney.
On the squash court, Highland duo Greg Lobban and Alan Clyne have come close to Commonwealth medals before. After winning world doubles gold in 2016, they narrowly missed out on a medal in the semi-finals of the men’s doubles four years ago.
Clyne is heading into his fourth Games and has been a consistent figure at the head of Scottish squash for more than a decade.
But by his side in the squad will be another Black Isle star in Lobban, who is competing in the singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles. The chance of a medal burns bright.
Toni Shaw can enhance her burgeoning reputation in the pool and Louise Christie could make a name for herself on the mat in the gymnastics.
There are plenty of narratives that could play out under different roofs in Birmingham.
While the football season, which inevitably dominates column inches, will not be in full swing, it is a perfect time to get behind Scotland and their athletes.
Particularly for anybody who is from this neck of the woods, there are plenty of athletes to get behind.
Speaking to them all over the last couple of the months has given an insight into their route to the pinnacle of their sport – that dedication deserves to be appreciated and heralded on the biggest stage.
