The Vortex - February 2026: Angharad Evans and Ben Higson Added to Team Scotland for Glasgow 2026
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Angharad Evans, Paris 2024 Olympian and World Championship medallist for Britain, is the second swimmer selected to Team Scotland for a home Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
She and her coach Ben Higson join University of Stirling teammate Duncan Scott, the first Scotland pick for the showcase event, which will start on Friday 24 July and run for six days.
In other GB news:
Craig Lord
Scottish Swimming issued the following on the Games news:
2024 was a huge breakthrough year for Angharad – becoming British Champion and British Record holder in the 100m Breaststroke and placing 6th at her debut Olympic Games in Paris.
Later in the year Angharad won silver as part of the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay at the World Short Course Championships, swimming the breaststroke leg, alongside Abbie Wood, Eva Okaro and Freya Anderson.
2025 brought more success, lowering her British 100m Breaststroke Record to 1:05.37 at the Aquatics GB Championships in London, the only British woman to have set a time under 66 seconds in the event.
She just missed a medal, placing 4th in the 200m Breaststroke at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships in Singapore and in December 2025 won her first individual international medal with 200m Breaststroke silver at the European Aquatics Short Course Championships. She will chase a first Commonwealth Games medal in Glasgow:
“To be the first female on the team is a really special moment for me. It gives me a lot more confidence in my abilities, and makes me want to make Scotland proud at the Commonwealth Games."
Also heading to Glasgow 2026 will be University of Stirling Head Coach, Ben Higson, named today as Team Scotland’s Head Coach for swimming. Ben made his Team Scotland coaching debut at Glasgow 2014 on the back of strong performances from many of his University of Stirling athletes.
He then coached as part of the Team GB set up at Rio 2016, where many of his athletes were competing, including Duncan Scott. Following coaching stints with Ireland for Tokyo 2020 and Australia at Paris 2024, Ben returned to Scotland as Head Coach of the University of Stirling’s High Performance Swimming Programme.
Speaking of his return to Team Scotland, Ben said: “It’s an absolute honour and a privilege to be part of Team Scotland again. Glasgow 2014 was my first senior international coaching experience, and I can’t wait to get back and experience that again!”
Angharad’s selection comes on the back of meeting the Phase 1 selection requirements set out in the selection policy and following nomination from Scottish Swimming and subsequent ratification by Commonwealth Games Scotland.
Elinor Middlemiss MBE, Team Scotland Chef de Mission, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Angharad to Team Scotland for Glasgow 2026. She has enjoyed an outstanding breakthrough period on the international stage and has since gone on to underline her status as one of the world’s leading breaststrokers.
“Having athletes like Angharad and Duncan confirmed at this early stage, alongside those announced across other sports, shows the strength and depth that’s starting to build across Team Scotland and I’m looking forward to watching them perform in front of a home crowd this summer.”
Athletes from across all 10 sports and six para-sports featured at Glasgow 2026 will be selected in the coming months as Team Scotland prepares for an exciting home Commonwealth Games.
February 1
Euro Meet Highlights From Rosendahl, Richardson, Shortt, Richards, Colbert, Corbeau and Nowacki
Meet records for Denmark's Helena Rosendahl and Ireland's John Shortt, as well as solid winter warmers from Britain's Matt Richards and Freya Colbert and a clash of 2:09s between Dutch ace Caspar Corbeau and Brit Filip Nowacki in the 200m breaststroke provided the highlights at the Luxembourg Euro Meet, which concluded today after three days of racing.
Rosendahl clocked 2:08.03 to win the 200m butterfly in a new meet mark in a battle with Swim England's Emily Richards, on 2:08.65, with Edinburgh University's Ciara Schlosshan third in 2:09.65.
Shortt was a class apart in the 200m backstroke, taking down Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard's 2024 meet mark with a dominant 1:57.84 win in the 200m backstroke. The Swim Ireland ace also took the 100m, in 54.48.
Richards, Olympic silver medallist at Paris 2024 by just 0.02sec in a thriller with Romanian David Popovici, fended off Italian Carlos D'Ambrosio in the 200m freestyle 1:47.23 to 1:48.03. The brit ace took charge of the race from the start and held tight to his status as the faster man all the way to the end wall. D'Ambrosio took the 100m at the meet, his 48.36 keeping Swim England's Gabriel Shepherd at bay on 49.16.
Colbert claimed the 200-400m free double: on 1:57.12 ahead of a 1:59.70 from Canadian teen Leah Tigert, for Swim Ontario, in the shorter race, and on 4:10.59 in the longer race. In the freestyle dash, Belgium's Florine Gaspard was the sole sub-25 sprinter, on a solid 24.69.
There were also wins of 27.14 and 59.85 for Potsdam and Germany's Melvin Imoudu, respectively ahead of Italy's Federico Poggio, 27.22, and Nowacki, Millfield, on 1:00.16, with Corbeau on 1:00.22. The 200m breaststroke delivered the sharper result, with an eye on summer speed to come: Corbeau 2:09.29, Nowacki, chasing down his quarry to a 2:09.96 finish:
28.93 28.93 100m: 1:01.94 33.01 150m: 1:35.34 33.40 200m: 2:09.29 Corbeau
29.08 29.08 100m: 1:01.94 32.86 150m: 1:36.11 34.17 200m: 2:09.96 Nowacki
