Duncan Scott lands Scotland's first Commonwealth Games gold and hopes to spark momentum

The Alloa swimmer raised the roof at Tollcross as he powered to victory in the 200 metres medley, retaining the title he won in Birmingham four years ago.Scott smashed the Games record in the process, swimming the four-length event in one minute 56.38 seconds as he held off a late surge from New Zealand's Lewis Clareburt, who took silver.

Bronze went to Scott's University of Stirling teammate, Tom Dean of England.

There was gold too for Scotland’s Faye Rogers in the women's 200m individual medley SM10 para swimming event to make it a double night of celebration for the host nation on the first medal day.

With Glasgow stepping in late to host a scaled down version of the Commonwealths after Australia pulled out, there has been criticism in some quarters of the reduction in the number of sports and the very future of the Games has been questioned.

A positive start by the home nation was needed to help silence the doubters and Scott and Rogers duly delivered. Scott took the lead halfway through the second length - the backstroke - and retained it through breaststroke and freestyle.

“It was a really good backstroke split in there and good learning,” said Scott. “I guess from the swimming side of things, that was the focus, but also from a more emotional standpoint and from the team, it was like trying to 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 hope is that Scott’s gold can be the springboard for Team Scotland over the next 10 days. “Hopefully plenty more medals to come,” the swimmer added.

There were also two silver medals for Scotland in the pool.

Glasgow swimmer Katie Shanahan was just pipped for gold in the women’s 200m backstroke, finishing second to Jenna Forrester, with the Australian 0.37 of a second faster than Shanahan. Fellow Scot Holly McGill was fourth.

Stephen Clegg won silver in the men’s freestyle S13 para final, with gold going to Nathan Hendricks of South Africa. Clegg’s older brother, James, was joint fourth.