Badminton star Kirsty Gilmour bags gong as she eyes up place at Glasgow 2014

Dec 7 2011 By Joel Spencer

Kirsty Gilmour

FILM student and badminton star Kirsty Gilmour enjoyed her own blockbuster moment last week when she claimed the Robert McCoig memorial quaich.

The 18-year-old was given the award to celebrate the best Scottish display in the international championships which took place at the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena.

While the award might not have been quite as prestigious as an Oscar, Kirsty told the Glaswegian that she was delighted to be given the gong.

And she said she was equally as pleased to have scored one of the upsets of the championships by beating 2008 champion and 2010 runner-up Elizabeth Cann.

Kirsty said: "It has been nice to get some recognition. Badminton Scotland have been great with me.

"I don't want to mention anyone above anybody else but my coaches have been brilliant – particularly Yvette Yun Luo my main coach."

The Robert McCoig Cup – awarded for the most meritorious performance by a home player during the competition – is the latest success in a career that began at the age of just five.

But when the talented player is not having her name written on trophies, she’s penning scripts in the
film-making and screen writing course she undertakes at the University of the West of Scotland.

Kirsty, who says her favourite film is The Butterfly Effect, already has several short films under her belt and composes short stories every week on top of creative writing classes.

And while Gilmour insisted that she is focused on aiming for the top in badminton, she won't rule out a career in movie-making.

The Bothwell ace added: "I'm focused on badminton but injuries are a possibility so it's good to have something else as I don't want the sport to be my whole life.

“As well as film making I do creative writing and compose at least one short story a week. I’ve made some short films but nothing available to the public!"

For now the hotly-tipped Scots prospect said her focus was on making the squad for the upcoming Olympics in Brazil and the Commonwealth Games, which are coming to Glasgow in the summer of 2014.

She said: "I'm looking to the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the development squad for Rio 2016.

"I've recently played in Delhi and won a bronze medal at the September Commonwealth youth games on the Isle of Man. I'm happy just to be selected."

Badminton Scotland patron HRH the Earl of Wessex was in the crowd at last weekend's final to watch Englishman Rajiv Ouseph scoop the men’s event while Dutch star Judith Meulendijks took the women's crown.

The mixed double champs were Kim Astrup Sorensen and Line Kjaersfeldt with Russian pair Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov claiming the mens' titles and Emelie Lennartsson, with partner Emma Wengberg, the womens'.