Finlay Allan claimed the best result of his fledgling judo career when he picked up silver on his Commonwealth Games debut.
The 20-year-old was not tipped to reach the final of the -66kgs category but he cruised through to the gold medal fight, winning his first three fights by Ippon including a comfortable semi-final win over India’s Jasleen Saini to guarantee a medal.
In the final, he faced Georgios Balarjishvili from Cyprus, who had defeated Allan’s compatriot, Alexander Short, in his semi-final.
The Cypriot also proved too strong for Allan, winning by Waza-Ari while Short lost out in the bronze medal play-off to Northern Ireland’s Nathon Burns.
Despite Allan exceeding most people’s expectations, his initial feeling was one purely of disappointment at failing to land gold, but he admitted he’s likely to appreciate the scale of his achievement once some of his frustration over losing fades.
“It was a good fight and it was a tough fight but obviously I’m pretty gutted with the result because I wanted to come home with the gold,” Allan, from Cupar, said.
“I think eventually I’ll be happy with silver but at the moment, I’m just pretty gutted about losing gold.
“This is the highest calibre of competition I’ve fought in to date so it’s been a great experience to be a part of this and once I’ve had time to reflect, I’ll be feeling much better about it all.”
Malin Wilson also claimed a medal for Scotland, winning bronze in the -57kgs category with defeat of England’s Lele Nairne in golden score.
Wilson had come through the repechage to reach the bronze medal fight and she admits that it had been a tough day both physically and mentally but snatching a place on the podium made it all worthwhile.
A bronze is a hard one to win – but it’s an even harder one to lose. When you’ve lost, it makes it even more special to win bronze because you know that feeling of ‘I have got to win this’,” the 27-year-old from Inverness said.
“I came of the mat really tired and it hasn’t sunk in that I’ve got a Commonwealth medal.
“I had my coaches both shouting at me. I couldn’t think – I just did the grabbing and hoped it was enough.
“It’s incomparable to anything I’ve ever felt.”
Elsewhere, Glasgow 2014 gold medallist Kim Renicks lost out in her first fight to Cyprus’ Sofia Asvesta.
