When Angharad Evans stood on the blocks at Glasgow's Tollcross arena, she did not let herself think about winning. That was her secret. By the time she climbed out of the pool with her fourth medal wrapped around her neck, no one could look away.
The Cambridge-born swimmer, who trains at Stirling University, finished the Commonwealth Games as Scotland's most decorated athlete of the swimming meet. She collected two gold medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, plus a silver and bronze from relay races, for a grand total of four medals.
Evans describes herself as a nervous swimmer who struggles to even picture a medal before a race. "I disassociate the idea of getting a medal because that's when I operate best," she told BBC Scotland. Yet despite battling those nerves all week, she proved something important to herself. "I'm a very nervous swimmer but I proved to myself that even though I am nervous I can get medals individually and in relays, even when I'm tired on the last day."
The atmosphere at Tollcross made a difference too. Scottish swimmers delivered a remarkable 12 medals across the meet, four of them gold. Evans said the roaring crowd and her teammates cheering her on turned nervous energy into something powerful. "It makes it a lot easier doing it in front of a crowd like that and with your teammates you train with every day."
Her breakthrough moments came on the final night of swimming. First, she powered through the 200m breaststroke after a slow start to claim gold. A few hours later, she swam a superb second leg in the women's 4x100m medley relay, helping Scotland grab silver behind Australia. Only one of her training partners had predicted she would shine at these games: Duncan Scott, who himself took home multiple medals. Even Evans did not expect such a haul.
After her 200m gold, Evans looked almost stunned as the crowd erupted around her. She spotted her family and boyfriend scattered around the small arena, managed to find them all, and collected hugs from each one. teammates in kilts formed a guard of honour to celebrate her. It was far beyond anything she had allowed herself to dream.
"Going into the Commonwealth Games with no expectations and coming out with two gold medals and a bronze and silver in the relay has just been so surreal," Evans said. "It just shows the hard work that we've been doing in Stirling."
She is not planning to rest on her success. The European Championships come up next week, and Evans is ready to keep fighting. "I think this is a really big step forward for me, and hopefully the Europeans will be another step forward. I won't go out without a fight."