Kirsty Gilmour is just about to head for a massage. “But not the nice kind,” she adds, lest it give the impression that she was slacking off for even a few hours.
Scotland’s number one badminton player remains as committed as ever to her chosen discipline but being able to spend the last few weeks back home has been a welcome tonic at the end of another hectic year.
There has been no let-up in the intensity of Gilmour’s training ahead of the European mixed team qualifying championships taking place in Glasgow this week but given the venue is a mere 10-minute drive from her home in Tradeston then being able to steer clear of hotels and airports for a while has been very welcomed indeed.
This is the first time for 15 years that Scotland has hosted a team badminton event and, given it is also Gilmour’s final tournament of the year, she is very much looking forward to it, the build-up allowing her to prepare in a less frantic fashion than normal for matches against Luxembourg and the Czech Republic at Scotstoun.
“I’m reliably informed that this is the first time Scotland have played a team event at home since 2007 so that’s pretty cool,” she says. “We had the Sudirman Cup here that year and now we have the mixed team qualifiers. We have the Scottish Open every year but it’s nice to have a team event in Glasgow again.
“All the Scottish players get on well and it’s nice that we can pick everyone who’s in the senior squad for this. It’s something everyone can be involved in, whether it’s helping with warm-ups or being cheerleaders on the bench. It’s good to have the full complement of the team and not just the six or seven that I travel with normally.
“Not having to travel to this event also makes a big difference. I think in the past we’ve had the option to host these things but haven’t taken it up for whatever reason. Usually we’re having to travel to some far-flung, obscure European countries. So now we can sleep in our beds and perform in front of a home crowd. “And even just the chance to rock up to somewhere where we’ve trained for years and know the environment can make a big difference.
“I did my last flights of 2022 about a month ago now to have this chunk of time at home has been really lovely. I don’t think I had appreciated just how stressed I’d been with all the travelling. It’s funny to compare my mood and positivity levels now to the times when you’re living out of a suitcase. The 6am flights take their toll after a while. And it’s just been nice to work through my full washing basket and get everything put away a while.
“There’s not been massive amounts of downtime as training at home has still been pretty hard. But it’s a good work-life balance, seeing my niece and nephew and things like that. It’s been nice.”
Gilmour tries her best to be an optimistic sort so prefers to put a positive event on a few near misses as she looks back over another tumultuous 12 months.
Fourth place at the Commonwealth Games and narrowly missing out on a medal was a particularly sore one to take but a European silver and a ranking of 17th in the world both demonstrate that the 29 year-old remains on the right path.
“It’s been a year of being so close - “almost but not quite” - and I have to frame that in the most positive way possible,” she adds. “If I look at it from the viewpoint that I set out to do certain things and didn’t achieve them then that wouldn’t be a very good place to be. That would be a bit glass half-empty.
“To be so close to gaining the ranking points that would put me in the top 12 in the world….I’ve got to look at that as a positive rather than combust that I didn’t quite achieve it. I’ve played some of my absolute best badminton this year. And even the games that I lost I wouldn’t say I played badly. So I’ve to be happy with the consistency of my level which is something I’d really wanted to firm up.
“It’s been pretty painful at times in terms of injuries and rehab but I’m okay with 2022 overall and how it’s been for me. We bagged another European medal as well but still missing a little gold number. But there are still a couple of more chances for me to tick that off.”
