Litchfield confident after Commonwealth Games opener in Glasgow

MAX LITCHFIELD insists his fifth-place finish in his Commonwealth Games opener is only a warm-up for bigger things to come. The Pontefract swimming star, 31, missed out on a medal in his 200m individual medley event as home favourite Duncan Scott claimed a stirring Glasgow gold. Scott – Team GB’s most decorated Olympic swimmer in history – sent the Tolcross International Swimming Centre into raptures to claim Team Scotland’s first gold of the Games ahead of British teammate Tom Dean, who bagged bronze. Australian Lewis Clareburt scooped silver as Litchfield, who specialises in the longer-distance event over 400m, touched the wall 1.4s short of a place on the podium. Litchfield kicks off his campaign in his favoured event on Tuesday and hopes to use Friday’s run-out as a platform for a maiden Commonwealth medal. “Medals were a long shot today but they are always the goal,” he said. “I wanted to be a little bit faster after the heats and move on, but it’s the start of the week and I’ll move onto the main event. “It’s good to hear and a really good race to kick things off. It’s great to compete against Duncan – I was waiting before and I could hear all the cheers for him, so as ever, the crowd have been great in Glasgow.” Glasgow 2026 caps a full circle moment for Litchfield after missing the previous two Games in the Gold Coast and Birmingham. The Yorkshire native made his Commonwealth debut in the Scottish city back in 2014, where he finished 12th in both the 400m individual medley and 1500m freestyle. Litchfield is now a world silver medallist in his preferred event over both long course and short courses – and is hoping to emulate those exploits this week. “This is just good for building confidence,” he added. “I’m not reading a lot into the 200m and it’s just there as an event to help the 400m for the last few years, so to have some good speed there was good.” Thanks to National Lottery players, more than £33million is raised every week for good causes. It’s because of you sport, arts, heritage and community projects, as well as our athletes competing at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, are supported across the UK