ELA LETTON-JONES says Duncan Scott’s stirring gold medal inspired her memorable Commonwealth Games silver.
The Welsh para swimmer, 19, claimed Team Wales’ first medal of the Glasgow Games in her S13 100m freestyle event.
Her tightly-fought race took place just moments after Scott – Team GB’s most decorated ever Olympic athlete in the pool – had claimed Team Scotland’s first gold of the Games in front of a raucous Tolcross International Swimming Centre crowd.
And Letton-Jones, a fluent Welsh speaker who hails from Gwynedd, admits watching Scott just minutes before her helped propel her onto the podium.
“The atmosphere was so good,” she said. “I was watching Duncan in the race before and that was really inspirational. Obviously he’s Scottish and the crowd were amazing, so I had so much adrenaline from them.
“We were in the back room before and hearing the noise was amazing – I’ve never had a crowd that big before so it definitely carried me.
“I actually don’t know how I feel and it’s not really kicked in yet.
“It was amazing out there and I’m just glad I delivered when it counted. I didn’t expect that result – it was so close and one of the closest I’ve ever been in.
“I knew it was going to be really tight, but I’m just glad I’m on the right end of that because it could have gone so wrong!”
Letton-Jones touched the wall just 0.41s behind Australian Jenna Jones in a nerve-jangling finale as fellow Aussie Kirralee Hayes bagged bronze.
The Welsh star scooped World Championship silver in Singapore last year and emulated that performance on her Commonwealth bow. Letton-Jones’ journey to Glasgow has been powered by National Lottery funding – and she hailed its crucial impact in enabling her to chase her hopes and dreams.
“I couldn’t have got anywhere close to where I am without National Lottery funding,” she said.
“It’s crucial for everyone in sport, and I can vouch for that personally. It’s amazing to have that and thank you to everyone who plays The National Lottery.”
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
