Scott Cusack claimed a well-deserved bronze medal on Day 2 of the Judo at Glasgow 2026, capping off a determined performance and earning his place on the podium. It was a tough start for our Commonwealth Games debutants, who faced challenging draws and a series of nail-biting contests. Despite the hurdles, the team showed great resilience, with Scott’s bronze medal providing a well-deserved reward for their efforts.
The first Scottish contest of the day saw a clash between home nations, with Daniel Pacitti facing Ethan Nairne of England in the –73kg category. In a strong opening exchange, Daniel caught Nairne with a foot sweep to gain a yuko advantage, a score which Nairne soon matched with a tomoe-nage, and later followed with an osae-komi for ippon, bringing Daniel’s day to a close.
Ollie Short (-73kg) met Nauru’s Hamray Temaki in his opening match, using his newaza skills to restrict his opponent with a hold-down for ippon and progress to the quarterfinals against Joshua Green from Northern Ireland. In this high intensity match up, it was Green who came up on top, scoring for yuko and dropping Ollie into the repechage where he faced Xavion Johnson of the Bahamas. Ollie once again deployed his newaza skills in the first exchange to transition into a strangle, submitting his opponent and securing his spot in the bronze medal match.
In her Commonwealth Games debut, Sunny Doig faced Australia’s Saya Middleton in the –63kg division. Opening the contest with her signature tomoe-nage for a yuko score, Sunny brought the pressure to her opponent, however Middleton gained the advantage with a drop seoi-nage for wazari, ending Sunny’s campaign.
Sophie Wood (-63kg) faced Laurence Biron of Canada in her first contest, coming out in force with a strong series of exchanges, however it wasn’t to be as Biron caught Sophie with an o-soto-gari for yuko, which she then followed up with a sumi-gaeshi for ippon.
Scott Cusack (-90kg) began his Commonwealth Games campaign against South Africa’s Thomas-Lazlo Breytenbach, where he swiftly dispatched his opponent with a textbook tai-otoshi for ippon, much to the home crowd’s delight. In the quarterfinals, it was Noah Walliss of New Zealand who would progress to the semifinals, holding Cusack down for ippon after a yuko score to take the win, and dropping Scott into the repechage. It was a tactical battle against Karanjit Singh Maan of India in the repechage, with the match going into golden score, where Singh Maan received a third and final shido, cementing Scott’s opportunity to fight for bronze in the final block.
Moving into the final block, Ollie met Faye Njie of The Gambia in the -73kg bronze medal match, after a hard-fought 4 minutes of golden score, unfortunately it wasn’t to be for Ollie and he exited the competition in 5th place.
All eyes inside the SEC were on Scott as he stepped onto the tatami to face Australia’s Danny Vojnikovich in the -90kg bronze medal contest. In a thrilling bout that went into golden score, Scott held his nerve to make history, securing the decisive victory and claiming a Commonwealth Games bronze medal.
Tomorrow, we do it all again with Nicole Wood (-70kg), Sarah Adlington (+78kg), Jaden Calder (-100kg) and Gregor Miller (+100kg) all taking to the tatami.
