Herald Sport's writers give their highlights from a memorable 11 days of sport

 

Herald Sport's writers give their highlights from a memorable 11 days of sport

 

 

SWIMMING

 

Ross Murdoch pips Michael Jamieson to 200m breaststroke gold on Day 1

Hugh MacDonald The cliche is of sport being run to Hollywood scripts. So how about this? Handsome superhero dives into the pool with triumph surely only 200 metres away. Two minutes later, he leans on a lane barrier. Beaten. Two yards away his mate has a smile as wide as Del Boy at a car boot sale. Michael Jamieson had been consigned to also-ran. Devastating for one competitor, it was brilliant, breathtaking for Ross Murdoch, the man who came up on the inside. The 200m breaststroke thus became the exemplar of what sport offers to the spectator and what it can take from those who devote their life to it.

The race revealed the personalities of two sportsmen at the extremes of the emotional spectrum. Murdoch was humble, but confident after his win. He spoke of his admiration for Jamieson but, tellingly, did not shy away from his ambition, his belief that this was a race he felt he could win.

Jamieson, too, made no attempt to hide his feelings in the pool. He hugged the lane barrier as if it was a life preserver. Perhaps, just then, it was. It was as if he could not look at Murdoch, far less congratulate him. But as the anguish subsided he turned to his younger opponent and hugged him. Later he faced the press and was unflinching in his self-assessment, unstinting in his praise of the friend who stole his dream. It was a reminder of how sport can not only test character but reveal it.

 

SWIMMING

 

Daniel Wallace powers to 400m medley gold

Kevin Ferrie Ross Murdoch shocked poster boy Michael Jamieson, smiley Hannah Miley had us beaming yet again and little Erraid Davies simply warmed the cockles of our hearts, but no-one seized their moments more in the Tollcross pool than the 21st century freedom fighter.

From near outcast to popular hero Dan Wallace was greeted on the blocks for the final time by his team-mates chorusing the war cry he had made his own.

This is your archetypal Scottish sports personality, a bit of a lad who has been prone to a bevvy or two, consequently falling foul of the authorities, the details of which he hopes will, like his late, great ancestor's less heroic misdemeanours, melt into the mists of time.

His subsequent emergence into the public consciousness, just weeks after he feared he might be axed from the team so took a shake to himself, was wonderfully memorable as he surged to gold in the 400 metres individual medley then slapped the pool in celebration.

The First Minister having expressed determination that his side would make this a politics-free Games the minders tried to claim that the accompanying yell of "For freedom!" was open to interpretation.

However there was more to come when, having been part of the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay team that claimed a silver medal, he made that final entrance into the arena.

Scotland's team kilt may not be to everyone's taste, but his decision to wear it pool-side met with roars of approval, not least from those team-mates and he duly delivered once again, charging from last place at halfway in the 200 metres individual medley to claim another silver.

The Wallace looks like being a Scottish favourite for many years to come, then... as long as he stays away from police cars and, perhaps, rowing boats.

 

CYCLING

 

Neil Fachie and Craig MacLean take gold in tandem sprint

Susan Swarbrick After the first race it wasn't looking good. Neil Fachie and Craig MacLean lacked their trademark explosive firepower as the Australian pairing of Kieran Modra and Jason Niblett took the lead in the men's para-sport sprint B tandem, looking super strong.

Even the Scots themselves, having taken gold in the men's para-sport 1000m B tandem the day before, seemed uncertain. After they claimed their spot in the gold-medal final, Paralympic and six-time world champion Fachie had tweeted: "[The] odds are against us, but isn't that what being Scottish is all about?"

With it 1-0 to the Australians, some would have written off Fachie and MacLean but the 4500 packed into the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome didn't doubt them for a second. The Scots stormed back to win the second race and there was a glimmer of hope.

It went down to a nail-biting finale, a spine-tingling energy rippling through the humid, cauldron-like arena. As the bell signalled the final lap, there came a deafening sound like thunder, thousands scrambling to their feet to roar them home.

When Fachie and MacLean surged across the line in first place, the feeling was one of elation. For a few moments I couldn't trust myself to speak, such was the huge lump forming in my throat. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers rang out as, accompanied by rapturous cheers, they took their lap of honour, a Saltire fluttering in their wake.

It marked not only a personal triumph for Fachie and MacLean but one for para-sport track cycling as the event made its Commonwealth Games debut. Later that evening a vibrant rainbow illuminated the flint-grey sky, appearing to dip down into the velodrome, marking the spot where Fachie and MacLean had claimed their pot of gold in true gladiator fashion. The goosebumps have only just begun to fade.

 

LAWN BOWLS

 

Alex Marshall 'celebrates' semi-final victory over England's Knapper and Tolchard

Stewart Fisher The most iconic image of the Glasgow 2014 Games? Aside perhaps from Usain Bolt cavorting around in tartan, for many there can be just one: Alex 'Tattie' Marshall's 'get it up ye' salute at Kelvingrove.

People may scoff at selecting a rather portly 47-year-old from Tranent ahead of all this world class athletic talent, but by any criteria Marshall's crowning moment is worthy of consideration. Representatives of all 17 sports certainly thought so, as they selected him as flag bearer for yesterday's closing ceremony.

Context was everything. Marshall would go on to rack up two Commonwealth gold medals, one in the pairs with Paul Foster, and one in the fours with Foster, Neil Speirs and Davie Peacock, but at this precise moment,

in a taut pairs semi-final against England's Andrew Knapper and Sam Tolchard, things looked bleak indeed. The English duo were leading by a 15-14 score going into the final end, and lying another, in close proximity to the jack. Marshall had just two bowls remaining with which to alter his fate.

The 19-times world champion used them to create a place in Scottish sporting history. The first, a dead-weight draw, navigated the crowded rink to kiss the jack before settling just a centimetre away. The second was even better, ignoring a heckler in the crowd and risking calamity to draw another which came to rest almost as close to the target as the first to seal a remarkable 16-15 win.

Do not underestimate the skill and nerve this required, and forgive the man - now a four-time Commonwealth gold medallist - if his celebrations were somewhat ungracious. Marshall has been dubbed the 'Lionel Messi of bowls' but when it came to decisive execution of your skill set at the business end of a world class competition even the little Argentine was made mincemeat of by oor Tattie.

 

ATHLETICS

 

Eilidh Child storms to silver in 400m hurdles

Susan Egelstaff Of all the 4500 athletes who competed at Glasgow 2014, only Michael Jamieson has any appreciation whatsoever of the pressure which Eilidh Child was under at this Games. Child was the poster girl of the Games - her face was everywhere around the city in the lead-up months and the weight of expectation upon her shoulders was incalculable.

That the Perth woman did not compete for a medal until day nine of the Games could not have helped her nerves, with the 27-year-old being forced to watch Team Scotland accumulate medals at a quite remarkable rate during the first week of Glasgow 2014. The pressure could, ultimately, have been paralysing.

Child's poster-girl status perhaps lulled observers into thinking that she was the stick-on favourite for gold in the 400m hurdles. That she was, in fact, up against world No.1 Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica put even more pressure on the Scot to perform to her best, but while Child may not have won the gold medal that the Scottish public so craved, her reaction after claiming silver at a packed Hampden Stadium demonstrated that it is not always about climbing atop the podium.

Child was overjoyed with her second-place finish; she herself had reiterated time and time again that she was unable to control who won the race, she was only able to control her own performance.

That she managed to perform well when it really mattered, was able to cope with the pressure upon her and did not crumble under the weight of expectation was a joy to watch.

It cannot be overestimated quite how immense a task it is for an athlete to cope with the pressure that Child was forced to take on.

She handled herself impeccably in the build-up and in performing to her best when she needed it most demonstrated that success does not always have to be gold-plated.

 

ATHLETICS

 

Lynsey Sharp digs deep to take silver in 800m final

Doug Gillon In 12 days of memorable moments that will live with me forever, identifying just one is tough, but ...Lynsey Sharp's silver-medal charge up the home straight, backed by that feral, living, Hampden roar was the moment for me.

The emotional discovery that her father Cameron had remained at home in Edinburgh on his own, because he could not bear to watch her run, made her angry for a few minutes. He emailed her to say he was sorry, and Lynsey told him she loved him.

Her father, European silver medallist at 200m in 1982, explained. "I was the ogre because I didn't want her to compete when she was so ill.

"I remembered running the first leg of the 4x100m at Crystal Palace - the European Cup final. I had diarrhoea, felt awful, and didn't want to run. I allowed myself to be persuaded, ran badly, and the press slated me. I'm still angry I ran. Knowing how sick she'd been, I feared the worst. I thought Lynsey would get hammered as well.

"She was a bit sore when I suggested she shouldn't run.

But it's all history. I am incredibly proud of her. She is a fighter. It's an old Sharp ethic."

Lynsey was one year old when her father was left seriously physically and mentally impaired after a traffic accident in 1991. "What happened, and how he responded, has made me the person I am," Lynsey said.

"It's made me strong. My mum and dad are both so strong. Mum's fought for my dad. My dad has literally fought for his life."

It was Carol's persistence which secured a medical negligence settlement, and Cameron's future well-being and security.

I am one of his trustees. My heart has bled for him almost daily. I'm not ashamed to admit there is emotion in my choice.

 

JUDO

 

Renicks sisters lead charge to podium as Team Scotland rack up 13 judo medals

Graeme Macpherson Scotland approached the opening morning of the Commonwealth Games with an indifferent attitude to judo at best. By the end of a pulsating, absorbing day on the tatami,

it was being hailed as the new national sport.

There is nothing quite like a clutch of shiny medals to help grab everyone's attention.

It is usually wise to approach any international contest involving Scotland with a sense of hope rather than expectation, perhaps even a sense of trepidation. Come the evening session at the SECC, however, and even those of us relatively new to judo were watching Scots in action and feeling strangely confident that they would come out on top.

And six times out of six they did.

So often did the assembled media make the short trek from their seats in the press tribune to the interview area to talk to one Scottish medallist after another that the lady in charge was moved to joke that we were wearing out her carpet.

Two sisters from Coatbridge led the charge to the podium. Kimberley Renicks, the younger of the pair, won a milestone medal, Scotland's first gold at these home Games. About 20 minutes later and her older sister Louise had done the same. Two siblings winning gold on the same day would have been unheard of, two within an hour surely a first.

Success begat success. Stephanie Inglis could not make it a hat-trick of gold gongs but still managed to claim a silver. Connie Ramsay, John Buchanan and James Millar all added a bronze apiece, the two men winning medals with valedictory performances before heading into retirement.

Scotland needed to get off to a flier at their home Games and judo - with a helping hand from swimming - sent them on their way.

Those of us who were lucky enough to be there will never forget it.

 

RUGBY SEVENS

 

Ibrox crowds revel in quickfire sporting drama and fun

Alasdair Reid The rugby sevens at Ibrox had been set up to tick every curmudgeonly box on my grumpy-old-git hit list. They had a cheesy announcer. They had audience participation games on the pitch. They had Mexican waves and they had singalongs. Sweet bloody Caroline singalongs. They had enough renditions of 500 Miles to circumnavigate the globe three times. I should have hated the whole thing.

But I loved every minute. From the sun-drenched Saturday morning walk along the south side of the Clyde - or the rive gauche as we may now have to call it in the sophisticated metropolitan hub that Glasgow has become - to the Sunday evening drama of South Africa's magnificent victory over New Zealand, it was a weekend of unalloyed pleasure. Four sessions, 45 games, almost 200,00 spectators. It was a triumph.

It was also the right result. New Zealand brought an unbeaten record that stretched back 16 years and encompassed four gold medals at previous Games, but they also brought a bad attitude and some pretty cynical practices.

Nobody wants powder-puff rugby, but their harshness went too far. Against Scotland, they had two players yellow-carded for professional fouls, then made things worse by putting one of them back on before he had served his time in the sin bin. It probably had no effect on the result, but it spoke volumes about the unlovely culture of their side.

Against them, the Springboks put up the magnificent Cecil Afrika, a player with joy in every stride. He scored the try that put the result beyond reach, dynamited that unbeaten record and brought Ibrox's magical weekend to a sensational conclusion. It was late when we spilled out into the Glasgow night, but we all left with a little bit of Cecil's spring in our steps.

 

BOXING

 

Charlie Flynn meets Dick McTaggart

Gary Keown Reece McFadden's victory over Andrew Selby in the preliminary stage of boxing's flyweight division was, unquestionably, the most electrifying moment of a fine Games for Team Scotland's pugilistic division.

It was the fight that had everything.

The unknown 19-year-old from Motherwell, gallus as they come and only six months into the seniors, coming up against the world No.1 and two-time European champion and bashing him around to such a degree that he finished up "losing" his gumshield. Not once, not twice, but four times. Selby had two points deducted, was outshowboated, if a such a word exists, by his opponent and lost the fight all ends up.

McFadden's display set the ball rolling on an action-packed 10-day spell that brought two golds and two bronzes for Scotland and was always going to be this particular writer's favourite moment of Glasgow 2014.

That was, until Charlie Flynn met Dick McTaggart. Flynn, in the end, proved to be even more of a phenomenon than McFadden. Both of them, with personalities as big as their hearts and a confidence in their own opinions, are a reporter's dream.

Flynn speaks instinctively and acts that way too. When he rested his head on McTaggart's shoulder on the podium at The Hydro, battling to keep his emotions in check after being presented with his gold medal, everything so wonderful about the noble art was there before us.

Much goes on around the fringes in boxing to leave a sour taste, but such beautiful respect and camaraderie exists between those brave fellows who go into the ring together and lay themselves bare.

They are what the sport is about and it was a pleasure dealing with them all over the course of Glasgow 2014.

 

WRESTLING

 

Alex Gladkov wins bronze at 65kg

Jonathan Coates Call me lily-livered if you want, but I don't hate the idea of living in a country where we all have names of differing origins and stories to tell that illustrate our varied backgrounds.

Alex Gladkov has lived in Glasgow since the age of ten, and there is only a minor trace of mother tongue left in the way he speaks. Despite inevitable assumptions made to the contrary he is more spiritually Scottish than a lot of the non-natives in other sports who won medals for Scotland.

Having said that, Gladkov could have been a first-generation Martian and he would have won friends at the SECC for a display of courage that had the whole arena upright in applause.

Freestyle wrestling bouts can last anything up to six minutes and there can be cagey periods necessitated by the ever-present risk of a mistake that could be irreversible. Gladkov and Chamara Perera had come to wrestle and they did not stop to ponder the consequences.

By the end of those six debilitating minutes, Gladkov was pointing deliriously at his coach, who also happens to be his father, Volodymyr, in appreciation for the tactical advice that framed his 21-16 victory. The 28-year-old could barely stand, with his knee heavily strapped after it had buckled under the body weight of a tumbling Sri Lankan. All he could taste was the blood that was intermingling with his teeth in a mouth so dry that he could not speak. So what did he do? He picked up a Saltire and played to the crowd, just like Chris Sherrington had done after his gold medal in judo in the same room.

My Games experience was bookended by two towering showmen, Sherrington and Usain Bolt, giving the paying public something more than sport to justify their outlay. All Gladkov wanted to do in his moment of glory was thank people. Oh, and tell the grandfather who had fled his home in Ukraine only a week before he had done something to please him. Gladkov is a warrior. Better still, he is our warrior.