Reid & Heatly win gold as Scotland reach 51 medals – BBC Sport

Scotland will end Birmingham 2022 with a stunning haul of 51 medals after divers Grace Reid and James Heatly earned a 13th gold and squash duo Greg Lobban and Rory Stewart took bronze.

Reid, 26, and Heatly, 25, who took Commonwealth Games gold and bronze respectively in 2018, recovered from disappointing individual showings to record a magnificent mixed 3m springboard synchro victory.

Then doubles squash pair Lobban and Stewart claimed bronze to close Scotland’s Games in fine style.

It means Scotland finish just two short of the record tally achieved at Glasgow 2014 and have won more gold medals than every Games apart from that home event.

In total, they have 13 gold, 11 silver, and 27 bronze and end up sixth in the medals table.

World bronze medallists Reid and Heatly led after two rounds, but had their advantage whittled away and were third going into their final dive.

However, they executed a sensational forward 3½ somersaults routine to roar to the top of the standings with a mark that no other pair could match.

“The Scots always deliver… but it’s not sunk in yet,” Reid told BBC Sport Scotland. “Both of us had disappointments earlier in the week, so to come back and finish that way is unbelievable. I’m so proud of us.

“This is such a special team and when you see all those medals coming in, you want to be a part of it.”

Reid, who spoke pre-Birmingham about the difficulties she had suffered post Olympics last summer, had faltered in both the 1m and 3m springboard, finishing fourth and eighth.

Heatly has had to endure fourth-place finishes in both springboard events, as well as the men’s synchro, at these Games but cast aside those disappointments on the final day of the competition.

“We couldn’t let it defeat us,” said Heatly, who grandfather Peter is a three-time diving gold medallist. “We had opportunities but just because those didn’t work out, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t come out swinging on the final day.”

Lobban, 29, and Stewart, 26, were not just battling Malaysian pair Wern Chee Yuen and Yow Eain Ng for bronze, but a history of near misses in squash going back to 1998, when Scotland won two squash medals when the sport was first put on the Games schedule.

Lobban himself had finished fourth four years ago in the doubles but this time he and debutant Rory Stewart recovered from a painful semi-final defeat.

After the first game went to sudden death, the Scots edged it before cruising the second game 11-6 to quash any notion of another near miss.

“We’ve been loving watching Team Scotland racking up a few medals and wanted to be a part of it, now we can,” Lobban said. “We can go to a party tonight knowing we’ve done our bit.

“Just squash as a whole, I think we’ve done terrific. We’re a small nation and lacking a bit of funding compared to other nations and I think we’ve batted above our weight for the last four Commonwealth Games, it’s just great to have something to show for it.”

Stewart added: “Scotland have been in that situation [fourth] a few times over the years. We’re delighted to get it right this time and hopefully we can go and celebrate with the rest of the team.”