Perth and Kinross will be proudly represented by nine competitors at this year’s Commonwealth Games.
The Games start on Thursday (July 28) before finishing on Monday, August 8.
The sporting spotlight will shine on Birmingham as more than 5,000 athletes from 72 nations prepare for 280 events over 20 sports.
Stephen Eighteen profiles our local heroes.
Laura Muir
Laura Muir is one of Scotland’s genuine medal hopes after breaking her own British 1500m record to win silver at last year’s Tokyo Olympic Games and bagging a bronze at this month’s World Championships in Eugene.
The 29-year-old, who grew up in Milnathort and races for Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, will run in both the 800m and 1500m.
She says she has “unfinished business” with the Commonwealth Games after coming 11th in the 1500m at the 2014 Games in Glasgow and missing out on the Gold Coast in 2018 to concentrate on her veterinary medicine exams.
Earlier this month Laura said: “I’d dearly love to win a medal for Team Scotland at Birmingham 2022.
“Getting on that podium wearing the Scotland vest is very much a goal.
“My family will be here and there’s a large contingent making travel plans. When you get that family support in the stadium it can mean so much.”
Muir is considered a “role model” by friends and colleagues at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers.
Charlie Aldridge
Charlie grew up pedalling in the Perthshire countryside and his upbringing may have helped him become one of Scotland’s most precocious talents.
The 21-year-old was the world junior mountain-bike champion in 2019 and he has this year won three races on home soil, including a Scottish cross-country series event at Comrie Croft in March.
He will compete in his first Commonwealth Games in the cross-country cycling event at Cannock Chase Forest.
Perth-born Aldridge has just completed his second year studying Mechanical Engineering at Edinburgh University and is spending the summer back at Crieff, where he calls home.
Louise Campbell
Perth-born Louise Campbell will be making her Commonwealth Games debut for Scotland’s hockey team.
The 28-year-old forward was raised in the Fair City by financial adviser father Alan and radiographer mother Tanya.
She attended Viewlands Primary School and Perth Academy.
Campbell now lives in Edinburgh where she has won multiple national league titles with Edinburgh University and works as a PE teacher at St Georges School.
Campbell’s nickname – which features on her own social media channels – is ‘Squidge’ owing to her measuring a mere 4ft 10ins tall.
Katie Robertson
Katie will compete at her second Commonwealth Games having been part of Team Scotland’s seventh-place finish in the Gold Coast four years ago.
The 25-year-old midfielder, who has been named the hockey team’s vice-captain, is a PE teacher at Dollar Academy.
As a 13-year-old growing up in Freuchie, Fife, she won the European Showjumping Championships with Team GB.
But in 2010 a fall from a horse knocked her unconscious and left her with a broken shoulder and collarbone.
Robertson, who now lives in Crieff, turned to hockey and has more than 50 Scottish and GB caps to her name.
Lauren Tait
The Perth-born netball star, who plays at goal defence or goal keeper, is making her Commonwealth Games debut.
The 25-year-old started playing netball at her primary school, West Linton in Peeblesshire, where only seven girls were in the year, meaning everyone was needed for the team.
She continued to play when she moved to Peebles High School and was part of Scotland’s World Cup team in 2019. Tait works as a netball coach in London and plays for Surrey Storm.
Her younger sister Adele represented Scotland in Lifesaving.
Rory Stewart
The professional squash player was born in Perth and grew up in Muthill.
The Edinburgh resident will make his Commonwealth Games debut after winning a World Doubles Championships silver in April, partnering Greg Lobban.
Stewart, 26, made a major breakthrough in 2021, winning four times on the PSA Challenger Tour and moving inside the top 100 in the world rankings.
He has continued his rise up the ranking ever since, breaking into the top 75 for the first time at the start of 2022.
Gavin Rumgay
Gavin is a sixteen-time Scottish men’s singles champion in table tennis and will compete in his fifth Commonwealth Games at Birmingham 2022.
Rumgay, 37, who was born and raised in Perth, competed in the singles, men’s doubles and team event in the Gold Coast, finishing ninth in each. He also made appearances at Manchester 2002, Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014.
A strong supporter of the separate sport of ping pong, he reached the quarter-finals of the World Championships and has reached a career-high world ranking of seven.
Rumgay, who now runs a racket sports coaching business in London, is also a former Scottish squad member for badminton and tennis.
As a junior tennis player he was coached by Judy Murray, and is proud to have beaten both Andy and Jamie Murray in their younger days.
Both Rumgay’s parents were professional badminton players and his sister was Scotland’s No 1 table tennis player.
Stephen Milne
Swimmer Stephen Milne will hope for more success after three podium finishes in his previous two Commonwealth Games.
The Perth-born 28 year old was a silver medallist as part of the 4x200m Freestyle team at Glasgow 2014, and won bronze in both the 4x100m and 4x200m Freestyle Relays at Gold Coast 2018.
Milne won an Olympic silver at Rio 2016 as part of the 4x200m Freestyle Relay. In the following year’s World Championships he won gold in the same event.
Milne, who swims for the University of Stirling, describes himself as an eco-warrior and studied a BSc in Environmental Science at Perth College.
Kaleem Barreto
Scrum-half Kaleem, 23, is part of the Scotland rugby 7s squad.
The former Glenalmond College pupil – who was born in Portugal before moving to Scotland aged three – will make his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham.
And he has described it as “a very special moment”.
The Perth star told Talking Rugby Union: “This time last year I didn’t know where my rugby journey was going to take me, so to be getting ready for Birmingham now and to be part of a multi-sport games is a surreal, but exciting time.
“Over the last few months, I think that we have steadily built as a squad and we will be looking to really compete for a medal at the Games.”
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