TWO North Ayrshire athletes have been called up by Team Scotland for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Dreghorn gymnast David Weir (19), who won seven medals at last year's Scottish Championships, including two gold, will venture on to the pommel horse in Australia in April.

Olympic medallist Dan Purvis and reigning British Floor and Vault champion, Frank Baines are the returning members of the team which won a historic silver medal in the Team Event at Glasgow 2014.

They are joined by two 19-year-old rising stars, 2017 Scottish All-Around champion Kelvin Cham and double British Championship medallist Hamish Carter.

After a fifth place in the Team Event in Glasgow, Cara Kennedy leads a women’s trio which includes Shannon Archer, who took four gold, including the All-Around title, at the 2017 Scottish Championships and Scottish Uneven Bars champion, Isabella Tolometti.

Talented young Beith badminton ace Eleanor O'Donnell has also been called along with Alex Dunn, after the duo won silver in last year's European Junior Mixed Doubles event.

With Scotland recently drawn alongside top seeds India in the Badminton Team Event, four of the eight-strong team competed in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Silver medallist on that occasion, Kirsty Gilmour goes in her third Commonwealth Games and will be in the medal hunt once again, with the Rio 2016 Olympics, two European Championships silver medals and a first Scottish Open title the highlights of her recent success. 

Also making his third Games appearance is Kieran Merrilees in the Men’s Singles, while Men’s Doubles pairing Martin Campbell and Patrick MacHugh return from Glasgow 2014.

There is more Ayrshire representation in Mauchline's Adam Hall, who has enjoyed a string of tournament wins in Men’s Doubles with Dunn and Julie MacPherson, who played both Women’s and Mixed Doubles at the 2017 World Championships.

Team Scotland’s selections for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games raced past the 200 mark as a further 92 athletes across 10 sports were announced at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum today (14 February).

The list of newly selected athletes includes Olympic and World medallists, defending Commonwealth Games champions and a host of athletes breaking through to make a Commonwealth Games debut.

Olympic champions Katie Archibald and Callum Skinner headed a list of 17 Cycling selections, with fellow Olympian, Grant Ferguson, also named.

Tandem pairing Aileen McGlynn and Louise Haston take to the boards once again, after double silver in Glasgow 2014 while Neil Fachie, double gold medallist four years ago, teams up with Matt Rotherham in the Men’s Tandem events, looking to defend both titles.

There is also a raft of young talent on the track with Jack Carlin, Mark Stewart, Jonathan Wale and Neah Evans all medallists on the World Cup circuit in the past two years.

John Archibald, elder brother to Katie, also makes the team following a rapid rise on the track. Better known as a road cyclist, he made the switch in 2017 with the aim of making the Gold Coast Games, a decision that has been vindicated by top results. Most recently brother and sister won Points Race gold on the same weekend at the British Championships. 

Netball select an exciting squad of 12 players, with an even split of youth and experience. Six return from the Glasgow 2014 team, including Claire Brownie who will captain the team in Gold Coast, vice-captain Lynsey Gallagher and stalwart Hayley Mulheron, who has over 100 caps for the National side.

Of the six athletes making their Games debut, three are teenagers; Bethany Sutherland who captained the 2017 World Youth Cup team to eighth place, Beth Goodwin, named Player of the Tournament on her senior debut at 2017 Netball Europe and Niamh McCall, the first player born in the 2000s to receive a senior cap.

Team captain Claire Brownie said: “I am honoured and very excited to be selected for the Commonwealth Games. It is an amazing experience to be part of Team Scotland, I absolutely loved it in 2014 and cannot wait to join up with the wider Team Scotland family, get out to the Gold Coast and put all of our hard work into practice.

"We have an amazing squad full of youth and experience, we are delighted with our new Team Scotland playing kit which nods to both our Scottish Thistles presence mixed in with the Team Scotland design, and we are really excited for the opportunity to represent our country in front of the world.”

Team Scotland will take to the field in both the Men's and Women's Hockey competitions at Gold Coast 2018, with both sides a mix of returning players and debutants.

Scotland's men took an outstanding victory in the 2017 EuroHockey Challenge II and go into Gold Coast 2018 set on bettering their eighth place finish of four years ago. There is a wealth of experience in the squad with Kenny Bain, Alan Forsyth, William Marshall and Gordon McIntyre all selected for their third Games and a further four players returning from Glasgow 2014. 

After qualification for the World League semi-finals in 2017 and a successful recent test series against Wales, the women's side will be looking to build on sixth place at Glasgow 2014. Twelve players make their Games debut while five return from the Glasgow 2014 side, along with defender Kareena Cuthbert whose last Games appearance was Delhi 2010. 

Diver Grace Reid is selected for her third Commonwealth Games at the age of just 21. The youngest athlete on Team Scotland in 2010, Grace stepped up at Glasgow 2014 to finish fifth in the 1m Springboard and since then she has made her Olympic debut, taken World silver and European gold in Mixed Synchro and become the first Scot since 1954 to take an individual medal at the European Championships. James Heatly, who recorded two top ten finishes in Glasgow, has also been a recent visitor to the European Championships podium, taking bronze in the Men’s 3m Synchro in 2017. 

They are joined by 19-year-old Gemma MacArthur and 16 year-old Lucas Thomson who have already found success in the 2018 Games Diving venue, teaming up to win Mixed Synchro gold at the Gold Coast Grand Prix in November.

Thomson was also a 2018 British Championship gold medallist alongside Heatly in the Men’s 3m Sychro event. The Swimming squad has also been boosted by the addition of Rio 2016 Olympian Camilla Hattersley and 2016 European University Games gold medallist Abbie Houston.

A four-strong Wrestling team sees Glasgow 2014 medallists Alex Gladkov and Viorel Etko return to Team Scotland, where they are joined by Commonwealth Championships bronze medallist, Ross Connelly, and British Open champion, Joe Hendry. Gladkov and Etko’s bronze medals in Glasgow were Scotland’s first in the sport for 20 years and the team will be looking for more medal success in Gold Coast.

High jumper Nikki Manson joins the Athletics line-up and has been in sparking form in 2018. She leapt to a personal best of 1.87m in Czechoslovakia in January and followed up with a Scottish National and Native indoor record of 1.90m at last weekend’s Scottish Universities Championships. Pistol shooter Jessica Liddon has also earned a place at Gold Coast 2018 after two top 10 placings at the 2017 Commonwealth Championships.

Today’s announcement bring the number of athletes selected for Team Scotland for Gold Coast 2018 to 207. Further selections, including the Rugby 7s squad, will be announced in March.