A relaxed Kirsty Gilmour begins her third Olympic campaign on Monday morning as she looks to progress beyond the group stage for the first time.
The Bellshill badminton star faces Azerbaijan’s Keisha Fatimah Az Zahra at 7.30am (BST) as she bids for the victory which would set up a winner-takes-all clash with China’s He Bingjiao on Tuesday.
Gilmour, 30, has a European Championship silver medal under her belt already this year and will be using the learnings from her previous Olympic experiences in a bid to reverse her fortunes on the biggest stage of all.
“With the first one, you want to squeeze everything out of it,” said Gilmour, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“Tokyo was a bit strange circumstances so for this one, I’m just trying to be super confident in all my preparations to be able to play with some freedom and a relatively relaxed outlook.
“It seems counterintuitive to relax on the biggest stage of your life. I’ve worked pretty closely with a psychologist and the conversation we’ve had was about reflecting on Europeans and the unique set of circumstances that big Championships bring.
“The key thing for me in that week of Europeans was that I was unafraid to lose. It unlocked freedom in my play and a fearlessness. In major championships, people can get really bogged down in what might happen or what might not happen.
“You could have the best week of your life so allowing for the possibility of that is super important.”
Elsewhere at La Chapelle Arena, Orkney-born Sean Vendy and Ben Lane are hoping to finish with a flourish after their group-stage exit was confirmed yesterday.
The pair were beaten in three games by world no.1s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in a hard-fought clash lasting just over an hour.
After losing the opening game, Lane and Vendy fought back to level matters before losing the decider 21-14 as they slipped to a second defeat of the weekend.
"Tough day, tough match,” said Lane. “We've come out on the losing side of the game twice, but we gave it our all in both matches, in the preparation and build-up to this great tournament.
“Unfortunately, we’ve just come up short twice. We've got one more match left to play so we'll give it our all”.
Vendy and Lane conclude their campaign against Canada’s Adam Dong and Nyl Yakura (7.20pm BST).
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