THE draw for the badminton world championships takes place today and Kirsty Gilmour, Scotland's great hope, can't wait to find out who she'll face when the competition begins in Glasgow in a couple of weeks . . .

Recently I was asked to give three reasons to justify the existence of sport. After panicking for a second, I think I managed to come up with some pretty good arguments.

One: the health benefits. Two: the life skills such as leadership, teamwork and independence that you acquire from individual or team sports. And finally, three: sport’s ability to unify an entire nation behind a team or individual. I have, however, come up with a fourth reason why sport is important. It one of the only things in this world that is, now and forever, truly unpredictable. Granted there are highly likely situations, but a glimmer of hope always peeks through as the underdog steps out into the arena and faces off against Goliath. And I think that is pretty special.

This sense of anticipation and expectation hits me before each and every tournament that I play. When you consider that I have competed in somewhere in the region of 150 tournaments since the age of 17 this is not a new feeling for me but one that never dulls. Every tournament is a new chance to either prove that your seeding is right or prove that you have been underestimated. And I love it.

I found myself hobbling into training with stiff legs last Wednesday morning thinking about the sweet relief of the foam roller that I was about the lie on and how I hoped my coach would take mercy on me that day. He didn’t. He did, however, walk straight across the court, extend a hand and give me a high five. Initially I thought it was for just making it out of bed (an accomplishment in itself that morning after the day I’d had before!) but then he just said, “16th, you’re 16th seed”. I hadn’t been expecting to get a seeding but after a good couple of tournaments in North America my ranking had climbed high enough to secure me the last possible seeded position. Happy days!

The draw is today and I have that tingle. That anticipation that anything can happen. And to know that I have put myself in as good a position as possible gives me a sense of excitement of what’s to come. Especially seeing as this particular world championships will be taking place in a hall that I have extremely fond memories of, the Emirates Arena. Just down the road.

So whomever the draw has in store, I’ll be ready. The little No.16 that will be perched next to my name guarantees that I won’t meet anyone ranked higher than me in the first round but it doesn’t guarantee anything else. I still have to step out on to that court with my game face on and prove myself. Shot by shot, point by point, match by match.