TEAM Scotland is now just two medals short of an all-time record haul at an “away” Commonwealth Games after three were won on the Gold Coast yesterday, including a sixth medal for swimmer Duncan Scott.-

The 20-year-old 110m freestyle champion was second in the 200m individual medley, setting a personal best in finishing just 0.19 seconds behind Australian superstar Mitch Larkin.

Scott almost pulled off a mir- aculous recovery for the Scottish quartet on the final leg of the 4x100m medley relay but had to settle for fourth behind Australia, England and South Africa.

In total, Team Scotland’s swimmers won nine medals, with Scott’s personal tally of six a new record for a Scot at any Commonwealth Games.

Speaking from the Optus Aquatic Centre at the close of the Games’ swimming events, Mike Whittingham, sportscotland director of high performance, said: “Congratulations to Duncan on winning a silver medal at the in the men’s 200m individual medley.

“He has produced some exceptional performances throughout the Games and has been rewarded with six medals, including that incredible 100m gold earlier in the week. Without doubt, Duncan has emerged as one of the stars of these Games.”

Whittingham went on: “Scotland’s swimmers have now delivered nine medals at these Games, demonstrating the strength of the sport at the performance level, but the sport is also in a great place across the board with membership of Scottish Swimming increasing by around 25 per cent over the last decade.

“Athletes competing for Team Scotland at the Gold Coast have produced some really exciting performances which we can build on for the future. Scottish athletes continue to deliver consistently on the world stage across a range of sports, demonstrating that Scotland’s approach to developing a sporting pathway to performance sport is delivering.”

The medal haul is up to 28, one short of the tally at Melbourne in 2006, after two medals in shooting.

Ian Shaw and Sandy Walker clinched a bronze medal in the Queen’s Prize Fullbore Rifle Pairs and Neil Stirton won silver in the 50m rifle prone event.

Sportscotland chairman Mel Young said: “Congratulations to Neil Stirton on winning a silver medal. In winning his fourth Commonwealth Games medal, Neil has shown once again shown that he performs brilliantly under extreme pressure.”

Arguably the Scottish performance of the day, however, came from the unfancied men’s basketball side who beat favourites Nigeria 66-61 in a thriller to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. The Scots now face host nation Australia.

The netball match between Scotland and Malawi was even closer, with the Scottish women losing out heartbreakingly by 50-51.

On the track, Eilish McColgan and Steph Twell finished sixth and seventh behind Caster Semenya of South Africa in the women’s 1500m. Both Scots now go in their specialist distance, the 5000m, on Saturday at 8.20am BST. Eilidh Doyle cruised home in her 400m hurdle semi to make tomorrow’s final at 12.30pm BST.