Scotland's Highlights
“I am delighted with the overall team performance of 26 medals including 9 gold which exceeded our medal target. I believe this provides a strong platform going into a home Games in Glasgow.” Michael Cavanagh, Chairman CGS
“As I said at the team announcement, Delhi would give the opportunity for new heroes to emerge and that certainly has proven to be the case.” Jon Doig, Chef de Mission, Delhi 2010
Fast Facts
- Team Scotland won 26 medals – 9 gold, 10 silver and 7 bronze, the second most successful Games ever. Only at Melbourne 2006, has Team Scotland ever won more gold medals – 11.
- 28 team members won a total of 38 medals in seven sports. There were 10 gold medallists, including two double gold medallists.
- Shooting was Team Scotland’s most successful sport winning nine medals (4 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze). This is the most medals shooting has ever won.
- Scotland’s top athlete was shooter Jonathan Hammond who won 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze and he is Scotland’s best performing athlete in any sport at a single Games, whilst fellow shooter Jen McIntosh was Scotland’s most successful female athlete of any Games winning 2 gold and 1 bronze.
- 19 of the 28 medallists were competing in their first Commonwealth Games and four athletes were repeat medallists - Robbie Renwick, Neil Stirton, Andy Hunter, David Carry.
- Six medallists previously won medals for Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games, demonstrating the importance of this event - Peter Kirkbride, Robbie Renwick, Jennifer McIntosh, Kay Copland, Andrew Hunter, Hannah Miley.
Sport by Sport
Aquatics - It was always going to be difficult for the swimmers to match their truly exceptional performance of the 2006 Games, where they won a historic 12 medals. However determined to deliver to their potential they didn’t disappoint and won two gold, three silver and a bronze in the swimming plus a bronze in the synchronised swimming solo event.
The action got underway at Dr SP Mukherkjee Swimming Complex on the first day of the Games with David Carry out to defend his 400m freestyle title. He had to settle for bronze but still collected Scotland’s first medal of the Games.
Day two saw David back in action along with fellow Aberdonian Robbie Renwick in the 200m freestyle. This time it was Robbie’s turn to come out on top and win Scotland’s first gold and hear the Flower of Scotland played on the podium for the very first time.
On the final day of competition in the pool Michael Jamieson took silver in the 200m breaststroke touched out to miss gold by 0.08 seconds. European Champion Hannah Miley waited all week to compete in her favoured 400m individual medley. She held her nerve to take gold in style with a time of 4:38.83, a new Commonwealth Games Record and crowned a fantastic day for Team Scotland.
After the first day of the Synchronised Swimming competition, Scotland's Lauren Smith was lying in third place following a strong execution of her technical routine. She put in a superb performance in the free routine the following day to hold off Malaysia's Katrina Abdul Hadi and win bronze, Scotland’s first ever synchro medal.
14 year old Grace Reid was Scotland’s sole representative in the diving, following the withdrawal of the Galashan twins with Helen sustaining a fractured wrist just days before departing for Delhi.
Grace who was Scotland’s youngest ever team member, made her Games debut in the 3m springboard diving event. She dived steadily through the morning qualification round to finish in seventh position and qualify for the final. She continued her good form in the afternoon session to finish sixth overall, settings a new personal best in the process - the first time a British junior diver has ever scored over 300 points.
Archery - Archery made a return to the Commonwealth Games arena in Delhi for the first time since Brisbane in 1982. Team Scotland had 10 archers selected for the Games in both compound and recurve disciplines.
In the team competition the men’s recurve and compound teams both finished ninth, whilst the women’s compound team were eighth. There were mixed fortunes for the archers in the individual events with Tracey McGowan giving the best Scottish performance to finish sixth overall.
Athletics - At the impressive Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium there were mixed performances from the Scots and it was the women that reached the podium contributing a silver and a bronze to the team’s medal tally.
Steph Twell, representing Scotland for the first time, had a magnificent race in the 1500m against world class opposition. She dug deep and held her line on the inside of the track to take a well earned bronze. Later in the week she gave another fine performance in the 5000m and just missed out on the medals finishing fourth.
On day seven Eilidh Child went into the final of the 400m hurdles as second fastest from the heats and lived up to her billing. She ran a fantastic race to clinch the silver medal in a time of 55.62 to end a successful season which saw her step up and establish herself amongst world class opposition.
There was disappointment however for the men in the hammer and the javelin who had been well placed going into the competition. In the hammer, Andy Frost came away disappointed with a fourth place finish whilst Mark Dry was sixth and James Campbell also had to settle for sixth in the javelin.
Badminton - In the mixed team competition Scotland got off to a winning start, first against Barbados then Wales and Kenya, all to the same impressive 5-0 score line. Hosts India were the first to beat Scotland 4-1. It was then Scotland’s turn to face the Auld Enemy England in the quarter finals where they lost 3-1 and with it their chance of winning a team medal as they had in Manchester in 2002.
In the individual events it was Glasgow's Susan Egelstaff who led the charge for Scotland in the women’s singles. However Scotland's hopes of ending the badminton competition with a medal ended in disappointment when third seed Susan Egelstaff lost the bronze medal play-off to great rival and fourth seed Elizabeth Cann of England.
Boxing - There was a great buzz in the boxing camp from the off, with all seven boxers determined to show what they could do. They didn’t disappoint and came away with a bronze, silver and gold to maintain boxing’s incredible record of a medal at every Commonwealth Games.
In his opening bout of the competition Stephen Simmons in the 91kg Heavyweight category was up against South African Masana Manganyi and gave a dominant performance to win 10-2. In the quarter finals there was another confident win for Simmons 7-4 against Canadian Samir El Mais. But there was disappointment in the semis when he lost 6-1 to Northern Ireland’s Steven Ward and had to settle for bronze.
Josh Taylor started strongly in the 60kg Lightweight category defeating Melbourne bronze medallist, Darren Edwards of Wales 5-1. He gave another winning performance 4-1 against Benjamin Lamptey of Ghana, before conducting a whitewash against Kautoa Roddy of Kiribati in the quarter finals to win 10-0 and guarantee himself a medal. In the semi-finals Josh put in a composed performance to beat Tongan Lomalito Moala 5-0, but in the final it was a tough ask when he was up against England’s Thomas Stalker, current European Champion. The experience of the Englishman showed as he came out on top 11-3 and a bitterly disappointed Taylor had to make do with silver. However it was an outstanding result for the 19 year old from Edinburgh who had only conceded two points on his way to the final.
It was Callum Johnson in the 81kg Light Heavyweight category that went all the way and took gold, a repeat of the feat performed by Kenny Anderson in Melbourne four years earlier. Having seen off Krystian Borucki of the Isle of Man 8-1 in his opening bout, Johnson was up against Englishman Obed Mbwakongo in the quarter finals and came out on top 6-2. In the semis Johnson continued to show his dominance against Wales’ Jermaine Asare forcing the referee to stop the contest at 11-1. There was no stopping Callum now as he executed a clinical performance from the start of his final against Thomas McCarthy of Northern Ireland 8-1 to take gold and secure Team Scotland’s final gold medal of the Games.
Cycling - After the six medal haul for Scotland in Melbourne on the track there was some disappointment this year in the velodrome, with just one silver medal to celebrate. However it was a different story in the road events where David Millar was determined to do Scotland proud and won a gold and a bronze.
On the first day of competition in the velodrome, Jenny Davis and Charline Joiner won silver in the women’s team sprint, a new event on the Commonwealth Games programme. Having only trained together for this event for a few months it was a fabulous achievement.
But there was heartache for the Team Scotland flag bearer, Ross Edgar, who crashed out of the keirin following a collision in the semi-final stages and was unable to bounce back in the individual sprint with the toughest possible draw against Australia’s Shane Perkins in the quarter final. Perkins beat Edgar in two straight rides on his way to winning the gold medal.
For David Millar, Delhi was where his dreams of winning Commonwealth Games medals for Scotland came true. After a fabulous tactical battle in the road race which Millar controlled for much of the second half, he was outsprinted at the finish to take an excellent bronze. With a full complement of six Team Scotland riders in the race, Millar was well supported, and he paid tribute at the finish to the work done by David Lines, James McCallum and Ross Creber, Evan Oliphant and Andy Fenn in the 168km race held in 41-degree heat.
After his bronze in Sunday’s road race, Millar was the favourite going into the 40km time trial, which was made challenging by strong wind. Yet as others struggled along the flat course, Millar was a model of efficiency - head down, legs slicing up and down, he cut through the wind like a blade. After leading England’s Alex Dowsett at half-distance - by just four seconds - his margin of victory was a whopping 54 seconds on the line. For the second time in a week David Millar made history by becoming the first Scot ever to win a gold medal in a road cycling event and it was presented to him by Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond.
Gymnastics - Scotland’s women gave a solid performance in the team competition to finish in fifth place, with all three girls qualifying for the individual all-around final. In addition they each qualified for one individual apparatus final with Amy Regan on the floor, Tori Simpson on beam and Jordon Lipton on bars. It was Amy who came out on top finishing fourth after a good routine.
Scotland’s sole male competitor, Ryan McKee made it through to the individual all-around final after a late withdrawal and set a personal best to finish 17th , whilst in the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition 16 year old Vicky Clow qualified for the individual all-around final and finished 14th.
Hockey - Following the draw, both Scotland men and women’s team knew they were in with a tough challenge to qualify through the pool stages of the competition with only the top two in each five team pool progressing.
The women got off to a good start holding hosts India to a 1-1 draw in their opening match. This was followed by a loss to South Africa, a win against Trinidad & Tobago and a loss to Australia. Following a fourth place result in the pool stages, Scotland’s women played-off against Wales to determine 7th/8th positions.
Scotland had played them twice before travelling over to Delhi, winning comfortably, and had been confident they could repeat their success and end on a high. With the score standing at 1-1 the final result went down to penalty flicks after no-score in extra time. The final score was 4-2. Abi Walker saved three penalties while Kareena Marshall, Vicky Bunce and Catriona Forrest slotted theirs in the net to cement the win.
The men had a frustrating campaign and lost all four pool games against Pakistan, Australia, Malaysia and India to finish bottom of pool A. In the play-offs they beat Trinidad & Tobago to finish ninth overall and equal their ranking going into the competition.
Lawn Bowls - For our bowlers it was a case of so near and yet so far losing out on the tie breaker on numerous occasions. They finished their campaign outside the medals for the first time since 1966.
The men’s pairs of Darren Burnett and Neil Speirs came closest to the podium in the bronze medal match losing out to Malaysia in a tie break. The men’s and women’s singles players both lost in the semi-final play-offs and the women’s triples went out in the quarter finals.
One highlight for lawn bowls was the appearance of 72 year old Willie Wood in his eighth Commonwealth Games as part of the men’s triples team, making him the most capped Scottish athlete to date.
Rugby 7s -Scotland created history as they made it into the quarter finals of the rugby sevens competition for the first time at the Commonwealth Games.
They opened proceedings with a 26-0 victory over Guyana then faced a tough match against Canada and came out on top 19-17. Their final pool match was against the almighty All Blacks who had stood out all day with their speed and skill. Scotland went down 44-0 but were pleased to go through as second in their group.
On day two Scotland faced South Africa, and having beaten them at Murrayfield in the IRB World Sevens Series in June, they hoped they could produce a repeat performance. It wasn’t to be and in a closely fought contest they lost 10-7. They quickly picked themselves up and overcame a strong Kenyan side after extra time in the semi-final of the plate winning 22-17. The final showdown was against reigning IRB Series Champions Samoa who dominated the match and lifted the plate.
Scotland ended their most successful ever Commonwealth Games campaign in sixth position.
Shooting - Scotland’s shooters were on target in Delhi and finished as the top sport at the Games winning four gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
In the 50m small bore rifle events Jen McIntosh and Kay Copland started the medal haul winning bronze in the 50m rifle 3 position pairs competition which was soon matched by Jon Hammond and Neil Stirton. Jon then went on to win silver in the individual 3 position event.
But it was in the 50m rifle prone events that Scotland swept the board with the above quartet winning an incredible four gold medals in the men’s and women’s pairs and individual competitions, an outstanding achievement and one that made coach and father Donald McIntosh extremely proud.
Jen put in an exemplary performance to take the gold only dropping three points during the entire match to equal the world record, and set a new Commonwealth Games record of 597-42x. This medal has a particular significance to Jen, whose mother Shirley won the event at the 1994 Games in Victoria.
Jon Hammond with two gold, a silver and a bronze was the athlete of the Games and the most successful male athlete ever at a single Games for Scotland, whilst Jen McIntosh with two gold and a bronze was the most successful female athlete ever at a single Games.
Keen to contribute to the medal tally, the other shooting disciplines also delivered. For the clay target shooters it was Shona Marshall in the individual trap event who came up trumps and won silver. In full bore Angus McLeod and Ian Shaw also delivered a hard earned silver in the pairs competition, which was fraught with technical difficulties on the range.
Squash - It was in the doubles events that Scotland hoped to shine at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.
Lyall Paterson and Chris Small and Lisa Aitken and Frania Gillen-Buchert progressed from the group stages of the men’s and women’s doubles, but lost out in the quarter finals. Similarly mixed doubles pair Lisa Aitken and Harry Leitch also made it through their group and went out in the quarter finals.
It was left to men’s doubles pairing of Harry Leitch and Alan Clyne to fly the flag for Scotland and they battled all the way to the semi finals. In a match of extraordinary doubles which lasted one hour and 24 minutes the Scots went out 11/10 11/6 to Australian opponents Palmer and Boswell.
This gave the Scottish pair one final shot at bronze and again they faced Australian opposition in the play-off in the form of Ryan Cuskelly and Cameron Pilley. After a tight affair in the first game and a fight back in the second, they were finally beaten 11/5 11/7 to just miss out on a medal.
Table Tennis - The Scottish trio of Gavin Rumgay, Craig Howieson and Stewart Crawford started their Games campaign in the team competition. They won two out of three group games, but then lost in the play-off for the quarter finals to Malaysia by 1-3. Left to contest the minor team placings, they beat Sri Lanka then Canada to finish in ninth place.
In the singles, Gavin was Scotland’s top player reaching the last 16 where he lost to the Indian second seed with a world ranking of 40 compared to Gavin's 228. Craig qualified for the singles, but went out in the second round, whilst Stewart just failed to qualify after winning his initial match.
Gavin and Craig got through to the last 16 of the men’s doubles but lost by 0-3 to a strong Australian pair.
Tennis - Tennis made its Games debut in Delhi and the players were determined to make their involvement count, despite the late withdrawal of Elena Baltacha who was a strong prospect in the women’s singles.
It was the mixed doubles pairing of Colin Fleming and Jocelyn Rae that took the tournament by storm, beating the hosts and second seeds India and fourth seeds England in the semi-finals, on the way to clinching gold in a nail biting final that had all the Scottish supporters on the edge of their seats.
The unseeded Scottish pair, who had never played together before the Games, completed a truly remarkable fight-back in the final to beat the Australian top seeds Paul Hanley and Anastasia Rodionova 7-6 6-7 6-2 to become the first ever mixed doubles tennis champions in Commonwealth Games competition. Their outstanding achievement secured Scotland’s third gold medal of the Games.
Weightlifting - Fourteen men contested the 94kg category including Kilmarnock’s very own Peter Kirkbride who jumped for joy when he was awarded the silver medal, breaking two records on the way.
The reigning British Champion and holder of three Scottish and British records before competition was lying second going into the Clean & Jerk discipline. He went for 189kg in his final attempt and made it look easy giving him a combined total of 333kg and take the lead. But when gold looked all but his, Faauliuli of Samoa, in the last lift of the competition, successfully lifted 192kg to grab the gold by a single kilogram.
Wrestling - Scotland had 10 wrestlers competing in Delhi, including seven women who were making their debut in this new Commonwealth Games sport for women. A number of them had transferred from judo and were hopeful that they could reap rewards in their new found sport.
However their medal charge was repeatedly thwarted at the bronze medal stage despite some hard fought bouts. Jayne Clason (55kg), Sarah Jones (72kg) and Ashlea McManus (67kg) all lost out in their bronze medal bouts, whilst Viorel Etko was Scotland’s best male competitor, losing out in the repechage semi finals.