Motherwell badminton ace Alex Dunn hopes everything he has sacrificed for the sport is aimed at a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The 23-year-old has risen to prominence in recent years, alongside doubles partner Adam Hall from Mauchline, and the pair won silver at the European Championships in Madrid two months ago.
Dunn is aware that expectation levels have risen for the pair, but says they’re ready to meet that head-on.
He said: “I think this is our time. Compared to the last Games, myself, Adam and the team definitely have different expectations on this one.
“We’re looking to do as best we can, to trouble these pairs as we know we can do on the day.
“We’ve got to do everything we can to put ourselves in that position that we want to cause an upset, we want to get that medal, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.
“Everything has been building up to this. After the last Games, when the expectations were different, I thought ‘I’ve got the next four years to basically get myself into the position where I can get that gold medal’.
“We’ve been trying to steadily build it up with the lower-level tournaments, and now we’re challenging and playing the World Tour tournaments, so it has been a steady progression and we continue to be on that track, so hopefully we can go further.”
When asked what a medal would mean, Dunn was instant with his reply: “Everything. As an athlete this is the biggest event to date, so a lot of my dedicated life to his sport could lead to this moment and it would be the biggest thing.
“It would mean everything.
”
Dunn says badminton has come in for a lot of praise, and expectation amongst Team Scotland is that they could be in the medals.
He said: “From what I’ve heard from the coaching team, Team Scotland has been giving badminton in general a lot of praise.
“I think that’s due to our structure, the players’ hard work, the coaches’ hard work and that of everyone around us.
“We’ve got seeded pairs in each of the big World Tour tournaments, whereas it used to just be Kirsty Gilmour.
“Kirsty has been the player for the past seven or eight years, and has been grabbing all the headlines for badminton in Scotland – and rightly so.
“But we want it to grow, we want it to be not just her, and especially at the team event.
“I like to think, looking at the team event, that myself and Adam have the possibility to do pretty well in these Games.
“We just hope we can show that when we get there.”
Dunn also hopes he can have an influence on those players who are emerging in the sport.
“I’d like to think I’m hopefully inspiring someone out there, especially in the Lanarkshire area,” he said.
“As an athlete you want to inspire the next generation, so that one day myself or Kirsty Gilmour can be replaced by maybe someone better – that would be ideal.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
