July 27, 2014
Stephen Wilkie and Rod Mills
Following the busiest day of Glasgow 2014 so far, Team Scotland maintained its winning streak, adding another five medals to take its haul to 30.
The tally eclipses our athletes’ achievements in the Delhi Games in 2010 and tops the 29 gained in Melbourne in 2006. The latest victories raised hopes of surpassing the overall figure of 33 medals won in Edinburgh in 1986.
And some athletes had even more reason to celebrate when cycling stars Aileen McGlynn and Chris Pritchard got engaged to their respective partners.
McGlynn had just won her second silver of the games with pilot Louise Haston in the para-sport 1000m time trial when Graeme Hinchcliff popped the question at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. The 41-year-old partially sighted athlete immediately said yes.
There was more romance when keirin cyclist Pritchard leapt from his bike at the velodrome and proposed to his long-term partner Amanda – who also said “yes” as their baby son Milo happily looked on.
Chris, 29, who’d plotted his proposal for six months, said: “It was top secret – I didn’t want anybody finding out.”
The country’s sporting success saw Katie Archibald takes bronze in the women’s cycling 25k points race with 33 points.
Later, tears also flowed at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre when Scotland’s youngest ever Commonwealth Games competitor, Erraid Davies, 13, from Shetland, became our youngest medal winner, taking a bronze in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB9 final.
Erraid, who trains in a tiny island pool with her local club, fought her way into the medal positions in the last quarter of the final.
Roared on by the Tollcross crowd, she finished just behind Australian silver medallist Madeleine Scott in one minute and 21.38 seconds.
New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe took gold, and set a personal best.
Erraid’s big sister Vhairi tweeted later: “So proud of my baby sister!!!! Bronze at 13!! Crying like mad!!”
The drama in the pool continued last night when Hannah Miley adds to her individual gold medal with bronze in the 200m individual medley.
And stunning performances in the 4x200m freestyle relay smashed the Scottish record by five seconds as Dan Wallace, Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott and Robbie Renwick claimed silver. Around 400,000 sports fans enjoyed the “biggest spectator weekend in the city’s history”.
Games chiefs said 385,000 tickets had been sold to events, including 200,000 for Rugby Sevens at Ibrox and 185,000 for the athletics at Hampden.
Thousands more lined the streets of Glasgow for the free marathon event, and the Games Live Zones at the Merchant City and Glasgow Green.
Read the original article at the Daily Express website.
