Rory and Kay shoot way to Scots' first medals

BANFF shooter Kay Copland landed Scotland's first medal – a gold – at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India.

And within minutes of her winning the 50 metre Rifle Prone, Rory McAlpine from Lasswade, Midlothian, doubled Scotland's medal tally by winning bronze in the boys' 50m Rifle Prone event

"It's beyond my wildest dreams to compete in an event like this and it feels absolutely amazing to win the gold medal," said 18-year-old Copland, who scored a 585 from a maximum of 600.

"I didn't think I'd ever get gold, I didn't think I'd ever get a medal so I'm so happy. The event is quite a high standard and I know some of the people, so I was quite nervous before the start."

McAlpine, 17, finished behind shooters from England and Northern Ireland. Had it not been for one stray shot in the final, which he recovered quickly from, he might have finished higher.

"I had one shocking shot right in the middle of the final on my fifth shot and thought I had ruined my chances but I managed to put it out of my mind and get on with it," he said. "I'm very and relieved to win the bronze medal. I was very proud to be standing on the podium."

Scottish javelin champion Lisa Glover (Edinburgh AC) just missed out on a medal on the opening day of the track and field athletics. The 18-year-old student from Glenrothes, who is also the British Universities champion, threw 42.52 metres to finish a frustrating fourth, just under two metres down on the bronze medallist from India. Had Glover matched her personal best of 46.04 metres she would have been in the medals, but would have needed to add another three metres to take the gold.

Clubmate Chris O'Hare will also have to reach into new territory to medal in the 1500 metres, judging by the results of the semi-finals yesterday from which he qualified comfortably. O'Hare finished second by just 0.02 seconds behind England's Simon Horsfield, who clocked 3:52.95 in the hot humid conditions.

The fact that the athletes had to run a preliminary round at all came as a surprise to both O'Hare and his coach Dave Campbell.

"We'd been expecting a straight final," said Campbell, who left Edinburgh yesterday to holiday in Cyprus delighted that the 16-year-old West Linton runner had gone close to his personal best and more than justified his selection.

But with Jonathan Ndiku of Kenya winning the second heat in 3:47.51 and all four automatic qualifiers in that heat running faster than Horsfield and O'Hare, it is clear that it will be a considerable achievement for the young Edinburgh AC star to gain a podium place.

Both Scottish runners in the women's 1500 metres, Beth Potter, through automatically in second place in her heat, and Eilish McColgan, through as a fastest loser in hers, are also up against it and may need personal best times even to make the top eight.

Edinburgh's Martin Campbell and Longniddry's Paul Van Rietvelde both made it through to two quarter-finals in the badminton event. Campbell, the Bank of Scotland Scottish Junior Champion, is seeded 5/8 in the singles and he beat Canada's Martin Giuffre 21-16 21-14 in the last 16. Seeded 2/4 in the doubles with Troon's Angus Gilmour, he recorded a 21–13, 21-9 win over Giuffre and Geoffrey Dona Prieur.

Van Rietvelde cruised through his first round of singles with a 21-6-21-10 victory over Fiji's Devarisi Sharma and then joined his Longniddry colleague Craig Pollock in a 21-13, 21-8 win over Sharma and Chee Ying Wong in the doubles.

Gilmerton southpaw bantamweight ace, Josh Taylor, climbed off the canvas after being decked by fellow southpaw opponent from Sri Lanka, M. Abesayasinghe, in the opening stages of their prelim round boxing clash.

Meanwhile, Fauldhouse light-welterweight Robbie McKee was set to go head to head later today for a semi-final place against Canadian Brandt Butt, while Kirkcaldy Kingdom's Edward Finney will try to secure his semi-final berth against India's S Satinder on the same bill.

In the table tennis event, Edinburgh's Craig Howieson completed the domination of his round robin group with a speedy 11-8 11-5 11-6 dismissal of Warren Li Kam Wa (Mauritius). Craig is now in the draw for the 16 top players.