Duncan Scott spoke of his “relief” after thrilling Tollcross international swimming centre by winning Commonwealth gold in the men’s 200m individual medley final.
The 29-year-old, an eight-time Olympic medallist, set a games record time of one minute 56.28 seconds for Scotland’s first gold medal of the 2026 competition.
The Scot took the lead in front of a boisterous crowd on the backstroke leg and increased that advantage in the breaststroke before finishing ahead of New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt, with Englishman Tom Dean, triple Olympic gold medallist, taking the bronze.
Scott said: “I just wanted to try and take it out, a really good backstroke split in there and good learning.
“So I guess from the swimming side, that was the focus, but also from a more emotional standpoint and from the team, it was like, try and get the momentum going and a bit of a weight on the shoulders for that.
“But I’m glad and (it’s) more of a relief rather than anything else.
“The swim team this morning did a great job. Obviously, the final session tonight has just begun, so hopefully (there are) plenty more medals to come.”
Scott will wait until the games are over before he assesses another success.
He said: “It doesn’t matter how high or low I feel emotionally, it doesn’t matter if it’s a really good performance or if it’s a really bad one.
“I think something I’ve always done quite well at a lot of major meets is evaluated at the end of the week.
“I guess when you’re reflecting, sometimes I’m probably not taking the highs as well as I could have, but that also means that I can be really good when it comes to day six, seven days, of competitions and things like that.
“So, yeah, it’s one that I’ll probably savour and really think about once the meet’s over.”
Adam Ramsay-Peaty, three-time Olympic gold medal winner, won the Men’s 100m breaststroke semi-final in a time of 59.19.
Fellow Englishman Gregory Butler, who finished third, also made the final with a time of 1.00.12.
Scotland’s Faye Rogers had the home fans cheering when she won gold in the Women’s 200m individual medley SM10 final and her medal ceremony also drew huge applause.
Earlier in the night, British Paralympic swimmer Stephen Clegg won silver for Scotland in the Men’s S13 100m freestyle, while 22-year-old Scot Katie Shanahan won silver in the Women’s 200m backstroke.
England took silver in the Women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay final, finishing behind a strong Australia side.
In the final event of the night, England again picked up silver in the Men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay final with Australia proving too strong for the field with a Commonwealth Games record of 3:09.49.
