Scotland sorry to see Games end after late flourish

Published on Thursday 14 October 2010 22:24

WHEN the smoke settled on the rifle range, it became apparent the target had been shattered. The pairs silver for Angus McLeod and Shaw on Wednesday afternoon was Scotland's 26th and final medal of these 19th Commonwealth Games, exceeding the official aim of 18-25.

• David Millar was one of Scotland's many stars at the Games

After a disappointing first five days, in which swimmer Robbie Renwick was our only gold medallist and several big names under-performed, the squad had come good. Hannah Miley won gold No 2 in the pool on Saturday, Jocelyn Rae and Colin Fleming on the tennis court a day later, and so it went on.

Two competitors, both of them shooters, were outstanding. At 19, Jennifer McIntosh is now Scotland's most successful woman at a single Games with two golds and two bronzes to her name. And 30-year-old Jonathan Hammond achieved even more: his two golds, one silver and a bronze were the biggest haul of any Scot, male or female, at one Games.

In fact, the second week - barring the final day, in which very few events were still taking place and almost all eyes turned to the closing ceremony - kept getting better. Wednesday, the penultimate day of action, was Scotland's most successful, with golds in boxing, shooting and cycling, and silver medals as well in the first two of those sports.

Think back three weeks, to when Scotland's participation in the Games was in doubt because of the insanitary state of the athletes' village, and it is remarkable how well the team has functioned. Indeed, even a week ago, this writer, for one, failed to foresee how fruitful the second week of competition would be after those first five, largely frustrating days.

The medal tally of nine golds, ten silver and seven bronze was accumulated from seven out of the 16 sports in which the team took part, with shooting alone accounting for nine. And that total of 26 compares favourably with most other Games, the majority of which were held in more favourable conditions.

Given home advantage in 2014, Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Michael Cavanagh's confidence that the Glasgow Games will become the most successful ever does not seem misplaced. The record to beat is 33, from Edinburgh in 1986, when many countries staged a boycott. But, while the second week here represented a steep improvement on the first, compared to the last two Games Scotland's total has actually undergone a mild decline. Those 26 medals are three down on the 2006 Games, which was in turn one less than Manchester 2002.

Perhaps more importantly than those bald statistics was the fact that the three key sports, athletics, aquatics and cycling, have all either declined or just about remained the same. And while medals in every sport contribute equally to the final table, some medals are more inspiring to the nation at large than others. Team Scotland were not a football side coming back from a 2-0 half-time deficit to win 5-2: they were an amalgam in which some parts performed very well, and others were significantly less satisfactory.

Take athletics. Last Friday night at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium we had six medal hopefuls in action: only one, Steph Twell, converted that aspiration into achievement.

Our swimmers were always going to find it hard to emulate their six golds in Melbourne, but we cannot merely write off that event as exceptional. The Australians, for one, have "exceptional" achievements in every Games, in part by ensuring there is a stream of young talent coming through. If you write off an extremely good result as a fluke, you run the risk of wasting the resources which helped produce it. Two of our three cycling medals were won by David Millar who at 33 will not be around for ever. Nor will Sir Chris Hoy, whose presence here would surely have helped swell the tally. When those two retire, they will leave a void which no-one yet seems capable of coming close to filling.

"Every medal is worth the same," Cavanagh said, and in terms of the table he is absolutely right. But when it comes to being a barometer of our sporting health, shooting cannot compare to swimming, cycling or running.

Some of the shooting events in which Scots won medals are earmarked for omission from the 2014 programme, as is solo synchronised swimming, in which Lauren Smith took bronze. Tennis and archery will also be absent, but judo and triathlon make a return, and that change of sports should be of net benefit to Scotland.

Again, however, triathlon is a case of a sport which needs to develop new young talent to replace its existing stars. Katriona Morrison is one of the greatest triathletes in the world, yet she, like Millar, is at an age where going on to Glasgow is in doubt. "New heroes will arise" was the slogan favoured by Jon Doig, the Scottish chef de mission. And he was right.

Twell and Eilidh Child in athletics, swimmer Michael Jamieson, Rae and Fleming on the tennis court, and cyclists Charline Joiner and Jenny Davis, among others, rose to the occasion. Nor was it just the medallists: of equal importance, as far as Glasgow 2014 is concerned, was the number of athletes who came just outside the medal positions, but now know exactly what it takes to thrive in a multi-sport environment such as this.