WEST FIFE swim stars Craig McLean and Tain Bruce produced memorable performances to medal at last week's Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.

The Carnegie Swimming Club duo won a silver and a bronze respectively to help Team Scotland to a glittering haul of 21 gongs, seven of which came in the pool.

After being given the honour of leading the 28 Scots athletes into the opening ceremony as the team's flagbearer, McLean admitted to feeling additional pressure to perform but he rose to the challenge spectacularly in the 100m freestyle.

The 16-year-old, who became British champion in the boys' 17-18 years event earlier in the summer, dug deep after a strong opening 50m to hold off the challenge of Englishman Lewis Clough by two hundredths of a second and finish behind Australian winner Vincent Dai.

McLean said, "It was amazing being on the podium, I've never felt anything like it before. Even though my flag wasn't at the top it was still amazing to see it there for me; it was really satisfying.

"After next year it will be straight onto the Gold Coast (2018 Commonwealth Games) and the journey towards that. This will be an ideal stepping stone; I'm at the top of the youths so hopefully by the time I get to the Gold Coast I'll have made that jump to seniors and it's given me a good opportunity to see who's out there in Australia and the other side of the Commonwealth.”

Reflecting on leading his nation into the Apia Park Stadium at the start of the Games, he added, “It's the highlight of my career so far – I've never done anything like it. I'll never forget the first 15 seconds after we came into the arena, hearing people shout 'Scotland!'. The crowd was absolutely unbelievable and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Meanwhile club-mate Bruce, of Hillend, followed up her own British Championship win in the 100m butterfly by taking a Commonwealth bronze in the same event.

The Inverkeithing High School pupil, who had finished fourth in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley, grabbed a podium place in a time of 1:00.83 and said, “I'm really happy with that because I was a wee bit disappointed with my fourths, I would have liked to get medals. It's just off my best time as well so I'm really happy with that.

“At first I actually thought I'd come sixth. I was swimming in lane six and when I looked up at the board I thought that six related to my placing but it was actually my lane. I was a bit confused at first but when I realised that I’d won the bronze I was so happy.”