Adam Ramsay-Peaty’s wife Holly watches on as star reaches 100m breaststroke final after bizarre 10-minute delay to heats – and local hero Duncan Scott surges to gold

Four police officers wearing high-vis vests snuck behind the Tollcross stand as Duncan Scott stepped onto the blocks. This was 1:56.38 of sports theater in Scotland that no one would want to miss.

Scott first dived in this east end pool when he was a ten-year-old boy. He swam there as a sixth-grader at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, but those expectations were nothing like the ones he felt at Lane 2 on Friday night.

The sold-out crowd shook their Saltiers and roared with each strike as Scott earned the hosts’ first gold medal of the competition. Adam Ramsay-Peaty was in the same situation, but the locals were only here to see one man.

Scott is the poster child for this Games and his storming victory in the 200m individual medley with a take-off victory. It was a similar feeling to Antoine Dupont winning France’s first gold medal in the Sevens field at the Paris Olympics and hearing the anthem for the first time.

“I was a bit nervous before that,” admitted the 29-year-old, who stopped New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt’s late surge.

Even the coppers were jumping. Scott swam here as a 17-year-old dreamer in 2014. He returns as one of the country’s most iconic athletes, ready to add an 11th gold (and counting) to his collection of Olympic, World and Commonwealth medals.

Meanwhile, Adam Ramsay-Peaty reached the final of the 100 meter breaststroke in the evening

Locals admire Scott for what he represents. He is campaigning against the closure of local leisure centres, including Tollcross. He lobbies politicians for more funding for public swimming pools and remains true to his principles.

For example, he refused to shake hands with Chinese swimmer Sun Yang at the 2019 World Championships to protest his doping conviction.

You suspect Scott would have been Scotland’s flag bearer had the race schedule not clashed with the opening ceremony. These days he is regarded with the same reverence as his compatriot Sir Chris Hoy, who emerged from Dr Who’s Tardis with the King on Thursday night.

Scott didn’t stick around to bask in his glory. This praise does not come naturally, as it did with his contemporary Ramsay-Peaty. The two were roommates and relay teammates at the Olympics and were enjoying similarly rapid rises.

With a new name on her swimming cap, Ramsay-Peaty hopes to follow Scott to the medal podium on Saturday night by qualifying for the 100m breaststroke final.

His famous wife, Holly, was also in the crowd as he faced a peculiar obstacle. Moments before his first race, one of the lane dividers broke the pool wall, requiring an official to strip and jump into the pool to reattach the wall.

The entertaining 10-minute delay did little to change the image of Glasgow 2026’s Poundshop Games, but at least it didn’t bother the Brit.

“Things go wrong in every sport,” Ramsay-Peaty said. ‘There’s no use losing all the heat while preparing. I think you’re dehydrated for ten minutes, but you know what I do much better in worse conditions.

The man was applauded by his wife Holly, who shared a snap of his sighting on social media

The couple, who became the power couple of celebrities, got married in December last year.

‘Even though it was a first (even though the scoreboards were broken, the clocks were broken) the guys put it together pretty well. It only took 10 minutes, right? I hope it doesn’t happen again. A little extra time to enjoy the crowd, I guess. Obviously I’m a sprinter, so every second counts, but you know what? ‘Things happen in sport, things happen in life and you’ve just got to keep going.’

Peaty shared this pool with Scott in 2014. Their journeys have taken different routes, but they look set to arrive at the same place on the podium.