Paris Olympics 2024: Kirsty Gilmour 'hits the ground running' with strong start to badminton pool matches

Bothwell badminton ace Kirsty Gilmour says she is happy to "hit the ground running" after racking up a comfortable win in her opening match of the Olympic Games in Paris.

The 30-year-old was in fine form as she enjoyed a comfortable two-set victory over Azerbaijan's Keisha Fatimah Azzahra on Monday morning, crusing to a 21-13, 21-11 success for Team GB in the Pool N clash.

It is Gilmour's third Olympic Games after tasting the experience in Tokyo in 2021 and Rio in 2016 and she told the BBC: "We hit the ground running and all the things I planned to do I managed to do, so I'm pretty happy.

"We've had a lot of challenges in the 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, kind of on purpose and kind of accidentally. In that way I feel quite prepared as well, I feel like I'm able to get clarity through those horrible patches. Mentally, I feel pretty prepared and physically good, too."

Gilmour is back in action tomorrow evening at 6.30pm when she plays China's He Bingjiao, a player she lost to straight sets at the Indonesia Open last month.

But the Olympian is hopeful of a better performance this time around, adding: "I didn't have a great performance when we last played. I had a low energy day, so was fighting my way through that.

"We've had some really close matches in the past - I've taken a few wins and she's won more recently. I'm just really looking forward to it and looking at it as a really positive opportunity to show off and play some good badminton."

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