THE realisation of a four-year plan is imminent now for Alan Clyne.
From the moment the curtain was brought down on Delhi in 2010 the Scottish squash player has been preparing for a Commonwealth Games on home soil.
Clyne and Harry Leitch, his doubles partner, finished just outside the medals last time and their No.4 seeding for Glasgow hints at a similar placing being on the cards. Clyne, though, hopes backing from a boisterous home crowd will help him and Leitch outperform their ranking to take a medal from higher-rated opponents.
"The Games have been in my mind for about four years now," he said. "In squash they are really the pinnacle for us and the fact it's in Glasgow means it's been in my thoughts since Delhi. The ultimate goal is to try to get a medal here.
"I'm going to be playing singles, doubles and mixed doubles. It's going to be pretty tough in the singles as I'm seeded outside the top eight so I'll need to pull off some really big results to get a medal. In the doubles, though, I should have a better chance and I'll be hoping to medal in both men's and mixed. In the men's four years ago I came fourth with Harry Leitch so we'll look to at least go one better.
"I think home advantage will be a big help. I've not actually played that many tournaments at home: the recent one in Inverness was the first professional one I've played in Scotland. So I'm really looking forward to having home backing."
Squash will be staged in the custom-built centre at Scotstoun where, alongside the traditional courts, a temporary all-glass facility has been erected so that thousands of spectators can enjoy the occasion.
"I've played in few of them in different places," said Clyne. "There's a tournament in Grand Central Station in New York every year and another at Hong Kong harbour as well. With the glass court, you can just about put it anywhere so to have one in Glasgow with family and friends watching will be great."
Clyne, 27, from Inverness, believes he is in good shape. "My form's been not too bad. We did well at the European team championships, finishing fourth. I had a good win over a guy [Spain's Borja Golan] who was No.5 in the world at the time so I was really happy with that."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article