THE story so far is one of sun, Subo and Scottish success.

Literal and metaphorical dark clouds are sure to pass overhead at some point - this is Glasgow after all - but even the most cynical of observers would have to declare that the outlook after the first couple of days of Commonwealth Games 2014 is hugely positive.

Who cares if some of the great and the good appear to have decided that the Games are all a wee bit second-rate and simply too much of a distraction for their busy schedule? Who gives a stuff if Mo Farah has decided he doesn't have the stomach to take on the Kenyans in the 5000 metres and 10,000m? What if Usain Bolt and Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce are restricted to bringing it home for Jamaica in the 4x100m relay? What if Jessica Ennis-Hill is preoccupied with a baby and her seemingly anointed successor Katarina Johnson-Thompson has a sore foot? It is their loss: Glasgow has raised its game and plenty of other world-class sportspeople will do likewise.

That old football adage about no one individual being bigger than the game holds true right across the sporting spectrum. Elite performance abhors a vacuum and what we have witnessed in this city thus far is a new generation champing at the bit to take their place at the top table. Those who spend their lives wrapped up in hero worship of false idols beware: sport's sense of natural selection and survival of the fittest always gets them in the end.

It's about the competition, stupid. And if the Scottish context for that truism this week came in the pool, Ross Murdoch usurping Michael Jamieson's seemingly anointed spot in the 200m breaststroke - the former suddenly seems a star of tomorrow, the latter perhaps unfairly designated yesterday's man - next week should witness something similar in Jamaican colours, with Bolt reduced to the role of a cheerleader on the sidelines as the likes of Nickel Ashmeade and co tear up the individual sprints.

The real star of the show, though, has been the city and its people. The comedian Frankie Boyle once memorably compared Glasgow's take on cafe culture to "Paris after a nuclear winter" but those who have walked through the city on these balmy summer nights have been confronted with an idealised version of Glasgow, a dear green place bathed in neon of all hues which has suddenly turned properly cosmopolitan and is delighted to be afforded the opportunity to live up to its billing as one of the friendliest cities in the world.

Aside from occasional grumbles about the rather erratic transport network and the kind of security system which wouldn't have been out of place at Fort Knox, so much adulation and goodwill has been heaped upon this city and its inhabitants that locals are in danger of getting a riddy.

That Aussies and Kiwis - you should never conflate the two - should find themselves at home here is not surprising. But few have felt the warmth more than our cousins from south of the border. What, if anything, this says about the forthcoming independence referendum is unclear, but Scots have delighted in confounding the expectations of at least one Fleet Street paper that English athletes would be jeered at these Games.

There is enough of the here and now to be getting on with for Scots to forget all about that slippery, elusive term known as legacy. But that would be a mistake. Because think how great it would be if this idealised version of Glasgow and Scotland was here to stay. Imagine more of our kids were prepared to forego the fish suppers and Irn Bru to devote themselves to a lifetime studying the disciplines of an obscure martial art, or make the sacrifices required of elite athletic performance.

As John Inverdale, the sports broadcaster, said in an interview to be run in this week's Big Issue. "I hope the host city embraces sport on the grandest possible scale and millions of people watching think maybe sport could become part of their lives in the future," he said. "However, after the 2012 Olympics there were lots of sports clubs who were not ready or able to take on board the influx of young people who wanted to play."

The default setting will return with the resumption of top-flight football soon enough, but we should enjoy it while it lasts. This week the focus for those same impressionable kids will shift to the likes of Eilidh Child and Laura Muir in the athletics. In the words, however volubly delivered, of Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson: Bring it on.