The sporting year: Sharp-shooter Jen McIntosh maintains family tradition

GUNSMOKE is in her blood, the Commonwealth Games in her genes. One of the earliest photos of Jen McIntosh depicts her welcoming her mother home from the 1994 Games, where Shirley won gold. Her father, Donald, was coach to the Scotland team at this year's Games in Delhi.

Given that pedigree, it was perhaps to be expected that McIntosh should thrive as a shooter. But surely not so soon, and especially not so spectacularly, as she did this year.

In a sport where the calmness and self-control required for success often only come with decades of experience, McIntosh triumphed at the age of 19. First of all, she and Kay Copland took bronze in the women's pistol pair competition. The duo followed that up with gold in the 50m rifle prone, and McIntosh then went on to take a second gold a day later in the individual prone.

The latter title was the one Shirley won in Victoria 16 years before, and was achieved by Jen in superlative form. The teenager missed with just three shots in the six series to rack up a total of 597 points out of a possible 600, beating the Games record by seven points.

After her triumph, McIntosh claimed in self-deprecating mood that she had only taken up shooting after she had learned she was no good at more sporty activities. But shooting is as much about physical self-control as it is about mental discipline, and McIntosh deserves as much praise for her achievement as anyone in a more physically frenetic event.

"I'm not sure I was with it, really," she said after that individual gold. "I felt a little bit out of it. Don't really remember what happened - I was just like: Oh, okay. That was good. Wonder how I did that.

"I've never been that nervous before in my whole life. Just the fact that it was going so well. I was aware that it could be really, really good."

Although she and Copland had competed successfully at the World Youth Games in Pune, also in India, two years earlier, she had not expected to make such an impact at senior level quite so soon. "I was hoping I could medal in all of my events, and I was expecting to maybe medal in a couple, maybe a bronze or silver," she added.

"I did not expect two golds at all. I'm still on the roof somewhere. Just all in a haze."

The event in which McIntosh won two golds is not on the calendar for Glasgow 2014 at present, but she will still be able to compete in the three-position rifle, and will also probably enter the air rifle events, too. After her achievements this year, she will have to bear the weight of a heavy burden of expectation from a Scottish public desperate for home success. But, already blessed with a maturity beyond her years, she can be expected to handle it with aplomb.