GOLD COAST HIGHS AND LOWS
ENGLAND’S FINEST
Nile Wilson, who stepped out of Max Whitlock’s shadow with five gymnastics medals, including three golds.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Max Whitlock. Plenty of the big names failed but Whitlock’s performances were perhaps the most surprising. Won team gold and pommel silver but the expectation was three golds from the double Olympic champion. Finished sixth on the floor behind Marios Georgiou, a Cypriot part-time dancer named Street Boy Killer.
UTTER NONSENSE
Australian boxer Taylah Robertson was awarded a bronze medal without winning a single fight owing to her bye straight to the semi-final.
TALE OF THE BIZARRE
The lawn bowlers of Niue, a tiny island in the South Pacific. Of their 19 athletes here, 10 were bowlers and of the bowlers all but two are married to each other. As one report put it, their trip was more of a couples’ retreat than anything else.
BRIT IN A LEADING ROLE
Duncan Scott, the 20-year-old won six medals for Scotland, including 100m freestyle gold.
GLORY MOMENT
The England netball team beating Australia for gold. A stunning upset, result and atmosphere. Up there with the golden hockey team of Rio.
BREAKTHROUGH CHARACTER
Anna Hursey, the 11-year-old Welsh table tennis prodigy, was the youngest competitor at the Games and quite possibly the most publicised.
SOBERING THOUGHT
Usain Bolt got a far, far bigger press conference reception on his visit to flog telecommunications than any other athlete.
FARCICAL MOMENT
Melissa Lowther not being allowed into the individual time trial because of an astonishing admin gaffe that saw a Team England employee forget to tick a box on a spreadsheet.
INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT
The fuss about Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand. Representatives from Australia and Samoa protested against her right to compete and you had to feel great sympathy for the athlete caught in the middle of such a complex issue.
RECORD-BREAKER
The Australian cycling team pursuit became the first in history to go beneath 3min 50sec. The most impressive performance of the Games?
TEAM GAME
England’s boxers won six golds and a silver in one night. Rob McCracken wasn’t here but the performance director of GB boxing, and Anthony Joshua’s coach, has built something brilliant.
PLATFORM FOR GOOD
Tom Daley won the 10m synchro and spoke eloquently and passionately against the prevalence of anti-gay laws in Commonwealth nations.
REGRET
English athletes not turning up. It remains bizarre that Diamond League 100m champion CJ Ujah snubbed the Games, given it would have been a straightforward shot at a major medal.