Jayce
Team GB’s Kirsty Gilmour commenced her Olympic badminton campaign with a commanding victory over Azerbaijan’s Keisha Fatimah Azzahra.
Gilmour, who had to wait for her opening match in Paris while teammates Ben Lane and Sean Vendy competed twice in men’s doubles, wasted no time in securing a swift win on Monday. The Scot triumphed with an impressive 21-13, 21-11 victory, but she later acknowledged that it was not a match she could afford to ease into.
“I wasn’t easing myself in,” Gilmour remarked. “[Keisha] has some really good skills, especially at the net. In the first set, I felt like I was on the good side to dominate. It was a bit faster going that way, and my attack was more potent. We switched ends for the second set against the wind, so I had to step in. Once I got it right, she didn’t know what to do from the back line. I’m happy with it. We made a plan, we executed the plan, and we won the game, so happy days.”
Despite her dominant performance and this being her third Olympic appearance, the 30-year-old Gilmour admitted she does not feel immune to the magnitude of the occasion.
“We’ve had a lot of challenges in preparation for this, mentally and how to pitch ourselves. We’ve worked through a lot of the emotions that might come up here in training,” she told BBC Sport. “In that way, I feel quite prepared. I feel like I’m able to get clarity through those tough patches. Mentally, I feel pretty prepared and physically good too.”
This preparation will be crucial as Gilmour’s next opponent in the pool stage is world number six He Bingjiao, who defeated her in straight sets at the Indonesian Open just last month. Bingjiao has momentum, with China’s men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles teams all enjoying a perfect record in the competition so far. A victory for Gilmour would be a significant personal milestone.
A continuation of her winning form would see Gilmour progress from the group stage of the Olympics for the first time since her debut at the Games in Rio in 2016, and she is optimistic about her prospects.
“I didn’t have a great performance when we last played. I had a low energy day, so I was fighting my way through that, but we’ve had some really close matches in the past. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Gilmour is not underestimating the physical and mental challenge of taking on a world-class player, but she is eager to move from theory to action.
“I had a stressful couple of days [before my first match]. I had been in the Village for about a week, and I was stewing a little bit. It came to last night, and I just couldn’t wait to play. I’d been theorising about it so much, and I couldn’t wait to do it. I can’t wait to have the opportunity to play the world number six at an Olympics. It’s a major championship, and crazy things can happen. I’m really excited.”
