Commonwealth Games: Why is it so special to be part of Team Scotland?

Those three athletes also compete for Britain and are at pains to make it clear that they enjoy, and even relish, doing so. But the Commonwealths are a rare chance to represent Scotland. Their country. Where they are from.

For most, the divergence is not political either. Instead it is something far less tangible. A feeling. That’s why explaining it isn’t easy, particular for people whose sporting talents are their primary means of expression.

Of the 25 or so athletes asked by BBC Scotland why it was special to represent Scotland, most immediately reached for the rarity of the opportunity.

In some sports, it only happens once every four years. For competitors such as Laura Muir, who missed out on the Gold Coast Games in 2018 because of her university exams, it has been even more scarce.

But there must be more to it than that? Not least because the Commonwealths lacks a little of the cachet of other events.

“Something just feels different when you’re running for Scotland,” says distance runner Eilish McColgan, who won a stunning gold medal in the Women’s 10,000m in Birmingham in 2022. “It’s like I’m representing my home town – Dundee – a little bit more.

“You’re around people you’ve known since you were wee – the athletes you’ve grown up with, the coaches, the support staff. And when you were young, it wasn’t about running for GB. It was about running for Scotland. So it just reminds you of home.”

The feeling is rooted in childhood for Murdoch, too.

“Just putting on the Scotland kit brings me back to being a wee boy,” he says. “I’m from a wee estate in the Vale of Leven, and I remember watching Scotland winning medals at the 2006 Commonwealths and that seemed as big as the world could get.

“From then on, that was all I wanted to do, so for this hobby of mine to get totally out of hand and me do this three times… I can’t even put that into words.”

Hammer thrower Mark Dry has – like Murdoch, Carlin, McColgan and Gilmour – been to Olympics and world championships and is “proud” to have represented Britain. But none of those occasions, while materially more illustrious, have made him feel “anything like competing for Scotland does”.

“It means everything to me,” he says. “Other championships, you’re doing it for yourself, but at the Commonwealths, you’re doing it for Scotland.”

Boxer Reese Lynch, who made his Games debut in Birmingham, is of a similar mind. “Even when I’m competing for GB, I’m still representing Scotland,” he says. “It’s where I’m from and it’s who I am.”