Scotland rules the Celtic fringe

by Neil Southwood

Whilst England and Australia were familiar rivals at the top of the medals table, an equally close battle emerged between SCOTLAND and Wales in the lower reaches of the top 10. Early golds were traded equally in the pool and velodrome, with Duncan Scott bagging two notable 200m swimming wins and Neil Fachie becoming the joint most successful Scottish Games athlete ever in the 1000m tandem time trial.
Welsh success in the lawn bowls mens pairs was then surpassed by Scottish wins in the mens, womens and mixed parathlete bowls events, with 72 year old Rosemary Lenton and 75 year old George Miller grabbing headlines for golds at record-breaking ages. It felt like whenever Wales succeeded, Scotland would soon after go one better. Both countries enjoyed a flurry of wins in the boxing ring and were amongst the medals in judo, rhythmic gymnastics and racket sports as well.
It was the Celtic triumphs in the Alexander Stadium though that produced some of the stand-out moments of our visits. First, Olivia Breen’s sheer delight for Wales in beating Tokyo champion Sophie Hahn in the T37/38 100m on the first night on the track lit up the stadium on a par with the accompanying sunset backdrop.
The following night, Scot Eilish McColgan’s brilliant battle with Kenyan Irine Cheptai in the 10,000m will live long in the memories of all who were there. It proved a fascinating tactical race, with both taking turns to lead and slowly breaking away from the pack until it was a straight shootout between them over the final two laps. Cheptai looked to have the edge but McColgan’s sudden burst of pace in the final 200m was perfectly judged in its timing and she was roared home by a partisan capacity crowd to emulate her mother’s success in the same event back in 1986 and 1990.
Although McColgan couldn’t quite repeat the win in the 5000m, Laura Muir compensated with gold in the 1500m on the final night. This track success capped a stunning Games for Scotland who edged ahead of Wales by 13 golds to 8 in the final table and ensured they would enjoy their most successful Games outside of Glasgow eight years ago.