Kingston, Jamaica 1966
With the British Empire formally ended, the Kingston Games became the VIII British Commonwealth Games. There was a worry amongst the larger nations that Jamaica’s infrastructure would not enable a successful Games delivery – but this proved to be largely unfounded. Controversially, also, the event programme was altered for the first time since 1950 with lawn bowls and rowing dropped and replaced with badminton and shooting instead.
Thirty-four nations (including Aden and Saudi Arabia) competed in the Kingston Games sending a total of 1,316 athletes and officials.
The nine sports on the programme were:
- Aquatics (diving & swimming)
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Boxing
- Cycling
- Fencing
- Shooting
- Weightlifting
- Wrestling
Weather influenced the Kingston, Jamaica Games to the extent of turning normal routines topsy turvy. Track and field events were held under floodlights in the evening. The marathon and cycle road race were run in early morning. Diving was held early, too, to avoid winds which strengthened with the sun.
The Kingston Games were generally disappointing for the Scottish Team. James Alder’s victory in the Marathon evoked memories of previous triumphs by Scots athletes in this event but it proved to be our only gold medal. Once again Bobby McGregor just missed a gold medal, and other silver medals came from Sandy Leckie, Tom Imrie and in Wrestling from Wallace Booth. The final tally was 1 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze medals.