HAVING banished any lingering off-season cobwebs to claim his third successive Scottish senior all-around title last weekend, Daniel Purvis should be in confident mood ahead of the Glasgow World Cup on Saturday.

The one-day event is part of the International Gymnastics Federation's all-around World Cup Series, which includes this weekend's AT&T American Cup and the Stuttgart World Cup in a fortnight.

Alongside Purvis, the men's line-up for Glasgow includes Max Whitlock, the reigning world gold medallist on pommel horse, and former European all-around champion David Belyavskiy (Russia).

Also in action at the Emirates Arena will be Akash Modi (USA), Christian Baumann (Switzerland), Arthur Nory (Brazil), Yu Cen (China) and Masayoshi Yamamoto (Japan) and Junho Lee (Korea).

Whitlock and Purvis were part of the history-making Great Britain team that won silver at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow last autumn. While never one to blow this own trumpet, Purvis, 25, is relaxed and upbeat as he discusses opening his international competition calendar for the Olympic year.

"Everyone is pretty evenly matched," he says. "David Belyavskiy is good if he hits it on the day and there are a few new names in the mix too. It will be interesting because it is quite open."

Purvis – one of the Sunday Herald's Six to Follow to Rio 2016 – views Whitlock as a contender for the overall crown, with his own target a top three placing. "I want to give the home crowd a good show," he says. "I always feel I need to do my best in front of the Scottish people.

"There is no reason I can't do well – the training is all there. I'm hoping to go in and enjoy it as much as possible. I think I will be nervous because it is my first world cup of the year, but if I hit all my routines I can hopefully end up on the podium."

Southport-based Purvis has been racking up the air miles of late attending British Gymnastics training camps in Portugal and Brazil. He is brimming with enthusiasm following his trip to Rio last month, where the British men trained alongside the Brazilian squad and toured the Olympic facilities.

"I think it gave everyone a bit of extra motivation," he says. "It was a good trip. Everyone in Rio seemed quite chilled. It feels like there is a fun atmosphere to this Olympics. It was good to meet and train alongside the Brazilian team.

"They are working hard and have some medal prospects such as [Diego] Hypolito, who is a floor specialist, and [Sergio] Sasaki, who injured his ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] at the last Glasgow World Cup but is back training fully now. He will be hoping to make the all-around final and push for medals.

"I think Brazil will be aiming to make the team final and at an Olympic Games anything can happen."

Purvis relished the opportunity to test out the humid conditions. "With it being hot your body always seems to be ready to jump in and start training, but at the same time it was important to stay hydrated because you sweat so much and I did get headaches a few days."

The GB squad took extra precautions due to the current Zika virus outbreak affecting Brazil. "We were all aware of it and had our anti-mosquito spray with us," he says. "Weirdly, the Brazilians didn't seem that fazed by it, but we were all very conscious of not getting sick."

Although hardly flying under the radar, Purvis acknowledges the scrutiny in the build-up to Rio has been less intense than London 2012. On that occasion Great Britain had the added pressure of having to qualify via the test event. In stark contrast, four years on they will head to the Olympics as reigning world silver medallists.

Having proved his mettle time and time again in the pressure-cooker environment of the world stage, it should stand Purvis in good stead as far as honing nerves of steel are concerned. Yet, success can breed its own set of challenges – something he is all too aware of.

"The pressure is on now as far as medals are concerned because we came third at the Olympics in London and second at the world championships in Glasgow," he says. "From an outside point of view people might think: 'Oh, they should make the top three quite easily' but you still have America, China, Russia and Japan who will all be chasing medals."

The Scottish Championships provided a decent dress rehearsal ahead of this weekend. "It was good to test out my routines and I took a lot of confidence from that," he says. "There was a few things that could have gone better on the Saturday – nothing too drastically wrong, just a bit scruffy in places – but I got to correct it on the Sunday. Overall it was a great weekend. It was good to see what shape I was in and realistically what my scores were looking like."

Purvis has added some upgrades to his parallel bars routine since the World Championships, but overall has made only minor adjustments preferring to aspire to clockwork-like precision.

"I was really pleased with the consistency of my routines at the World Championships and I think, if I'm to make the Olympics, that is the key," he says. "I don't want to risk too much more difficulty. It is about producing consistent and clean routines, especially from a team perspective."

After Glasgow, Purvis will turn his attention to the British Championships in Liverpool next month followed by the European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, in May.

"The British Championships will be a massive trial for the Euros and I'll hopefully be selected for that," he says. "There are not many competitions between now and Rio, so it is important to hit the high scores."