Four years after quitting the sport amid disillusionment with life in and out of the pool, Angharad Evans last night elevated her name to the pantheon of Scottish swimming legends.
The 23-year-old completed a remarkable double in front of an adoring Tollcross crowd when she added the Glasgow 2026 200m breaststroke title to the 100m breaststroke crown she claimed on Sunday night.
Evans is the first woman to win two individual Commonwealth gold medals at a single Games since Caitlin McClatchey did the 200m and 400m freestyle double in Melbourne 20 years ago.
She joins an elite list of the nation’s double gold medallists at one Games which also includes Scottish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Elenor Gordon, a pioneer for women’s swimming at Vancouver in 1954, and the legendary Olympic champion David Wilkie who bagged two golds in the 1974 event in Christchurch.
It’s a truly remarkable transformation in Cambridge-born Evans’ career, one which was drifting aimlessly during a spell at the University of Georgia.
In 2022, she left Georgia and also believed she had left swimming behind her for good — until Bradley Hay, the high performance swimming coach at the University of Stirling, persuaded her to relocate to Scotland and give the sport another try.
Angharad Evans waves to the crowd in Tollcross after her latest stunning success in the pool
It has paid the richest of dividends and Evans will now be regarded as a contender for Olympic glory with Team GB in Los Angeles in 2028.
‘Four years ago this summer, I had quit the sport and thought that was me done,’ said Evans. ‘Then Brad asked me in and I found my love for the sport again in Stirling. He asked me what my goals were and I said maybe just to swim in an international meet one day — now I’m standing here with two gold medals for Scotland.
‘I wasn’t just an unhappy athlete in America, I was an unhappy person and that showed in the decisions I was making. I stopped training, maybe for eight months, and thought that was it.
‘I missed out on a lot then but I don’t regret it. It has opened my eyes to how lucky I am to be at Stirling and everything it and Scotland has given me.
‘I was completely unaware that I’m the first woman to win two golds at a Commonwealth Games since Caitlin, so yeah, that’s such an honour. I’ve fought for it and I’m happy for it. It’s just surreal, really, especially to do it at a home Games.
‘It truly is an honour to represent Scotland, to hear that crowd and to fight for our country.’
Evans certainly had to scrap hard to get the gold in a thrilling race which saw Kaylene Corbett of South Africa push her all the way to the finish. The winning margin was just 0.67 of a second.
Evans has been the standout British female at the Games and now has big Olympic ambitions
‘That hurt, especially in the last 15 metres or so,’ said Evans. ‘It was very tough. I was numb. I felt everything. I felt like I was feeling everyone’s pain. So I’m extremely proud of myself.’
Despite Duncan Scott’s surprise failure to reach the men’s 200m freestyle final, finishing fourth in his morning heat, it was a memorable final night in the pool for Scotland.
Keanna Macinnes claimed her second silver medal of the event, just 0.20 of a second behind Australian winner Brittany Castelluzzo in the women’s 200m butterfly to follow up her fine display in the 100m butterfly on Monday. There was bronze for Aberdeen’s Toni Shaw in the women’s 100m freestyle S9 final.
The conclusion to the meet brought more success for golden girl Evans who, along with Macinnes, returned to the pool to win 4x100m medley relay silver alongside Katie Shanahan and Evie Davis.
Scott was unable to add to his tally in the last race of the night, anchoring Matt Ward, Archie Goodburn and Dean Fearn to fifth place in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.
By any metric, the six days of competition at Tollcross have been a significant success for the host nation with a final tally of 12 medals — five gold, five silver and two bronze.
Scotland were helped hugely by the momentum of opening night last Friday when Scott lived up to his reputation as their talisman. The 29-year-old admitted to feeling the weight of expectation upon his shoulders but shrugged it off with a pulsating performance to claim his country’s first gold of the games in the 200m individual medley.
With Faye Rogers quickly following suit in the women’s 200m individual medley S10 event — the Para swimming races have combined joyously and seamlessly with the rest at this meeting — Scotland were on a roll.
Katie Shanahan and Stephen Clegg both bagged silver, in the women’s 200m backstroke and men’s 100m freestyle S13 respectively, to further enhance a glorious first evening in the pool.
Keanna Macinnes took silver in the 200m butterfly and another in the 4×100 medlay relay
That momentum was always going to be tough to maintain and Saturday proved to be the first and only night when no Scots made it to the podium.
Evans got the show back on the road in spectacular style on Sunday with her nerve-shredding 100m breaststroke success as she edged out Canny and Australia’s Ella Ramsay in a blanket finish.
Macinnes’ silver in the women’s 100m butterfly thrilled the Monday night crowd who also rose as one to acclaim the inspirational Goodburn. The 25-year-old’s appearance in the 50m breaststroke final, where his tied seventh placing felt like an irrelevance, was perhaps the standout achievement of the meeting as he bravely confronts his battle with a rare and incurable form of brain cancer.
Tuesday saw Clegg improve superbly on his opening night silver as he won the 50m freestyle S13 final in a session closed by Scott’s breathtaking final leg to secure bronze for Scotland in the mixed 4 x 100m medley relay.
Last night, Evans & Co put the icing on the cake after a week which has seen Scottish swimming rise to the occasion in style.
