FLAGBEARER Eilidh Doyle said her third successive Commonwealth silver medal meant even more to her than her Glasgow 2014 experience as Gold Coast 2018 became the second most successful games in the history of the Scottish team. Having paraded the saltire into the Carrara Stadium on opening night, the 31-year-old from Kinross wrapped herself in the flag again last night after finishing second behind Janieve Russell of Jamaica in the 400m hurdles.
Coupled with a bronze for Seonaid McIntosh in the 50m air rifle event in shooting, and a silver for the women’s triples of Caroline Brown, Kay Moran and Stacey McDougall in lawn bowls, there were three further medals in all here for Scotland yesterday, enough to move the nation onto 35 with still three days of the championships remaining. That comfortably outstripped the 33 won back in Edinburgh in 1986, an event where many of the African nations were boycotting the games, for second on the all-time list.
While the whopping haul of 53 from Glasgow in 2014 may be beyond their reach, another three medals at least are secured already. Reece McFadden and John Docherty in boxing are guaranteed at least a bronze, and the men’s fours in lawn bowls – skipped by Alex ‘Tattie’ Marshall – featuring in a gold medal match in the small hours of yesterday morning.
“This one means the most to me, I think,” said Doyle. “It was definitely the hardest to achieve. Glasgow meant a lot to me because I was at home. But, to me, the silver was always what was expected of me in Glasgow. It was always going to be a tall order to win the gold and, if I hadn’t won silver, it would probably have been a bad championships for me.
“But here, I could have run the best race possible and still not come away with a medal. So to be able to leave it all on the track and get a medal means the world.”
While Jake Wightman was squeezed into fourth in the 800m final, even in athletics terms the three track and field medals to date represents something of a milestone. Coming after Mark Dry’s bronze in the hammer and Maria Lyle’s silver in the T35 100m, the athletics team now has three medals, their most in any away games since Auckland in 1990, where they won five medals. Still one short of their Glasgow haul, they have already outstripped their tallies from Victoria, Kuala Lumpur, Manchester, Melbourne and Delhi, with other chances to come in the men’s 1500m and the women’s 4x400m relay.
Doyle’s fellow 2014 silver medalist Lynsey Sharp crashed out of the 800m after finishing fourth in her heat and storming past waiting media, even if her time was marginally faster than that Glasgow 2014 final “I’m disappointed I couldn’t represent Scotland as well as I would have liked,” she said on Instagram later, “but I will put my head down and work even harder to do better next time.”
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