I’ve never really found it very easy to get into the Commonwealth Games.
Maybe it’s the fact I didn’t have a chance to watch much of the last two editions – in Delhi in 2010 and Melbourne four years previously. Maybe it’s because, without the likes of USA, China and Russia, it sometimes has the feeling of almost a second-rate competition. Maybe it’s because I’m cheering on Team Wales, inevitably less successful than Team GB at an Olympics or World Championships.
Wales hosting the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
But this time around I’m really looking forward to going up to Scotland for a week to watch Glasgow 2014, my first Commonwealth Games, where I’ve got tickets to swimming, rugby sevens and athletics, and which gets under way with the opening ceremony at Celtic Park on Wednesday.
And although the big names seem to be dropping like flies at the moment – Welsh boxer Fred Evans and English sprinter Dwain Chambers today joining the absentee list – I confidently predict the whole nation will be captivated by the Games, the first to be held on British soil since 2002, by this time next week.
As a Welsh fan, though, London 2012 silver medallist Evans’s presence will be missed – especially as, if you were picking a quartet of Wales medal prospects for Glasgow it could very well be made up of the 23-year-old, cyclist Becky James and triathletes Helen Jenkins and Non Stanford. All four will be missing from Scotland’s biggest city this summer.
Still, no point in being glum. Here are five bits of Welsh Commonwealth Games glory (or near-glory):
1. Weirdly, my all-time favourite Commonwealth Games moment saw Wales beaten by England. But what an effort red-haired Matt Elias put in on the final leg of the 4x400m relay to get within a photo finish of the English team. Although perhaps Wales, with a quartet of Elias, Jamie Baulch, Iwan Thomas and Tim Benjamin, should really have won it…
2. Dai Greene wins gold, Rhys Williams bronze
3. Colin Jackson winning 110m hurdle gold in 1994. Although he held the world record for a 13 years, he never won Olympic gold, so had to settle for top spot in the Commonwealths and the World Championships, both twice.
4. Robert Weale. If I need to say more, you clearly don’t even take a passing interest in the Welsh lawn bowls scene (shame on you!). Powys-based Weale won his first Commonwealth medal in 1986, is the reigning singles champion and one of Wales’s best-ever Commonwealth Games competitors. Disappointingly, I’ve not been able to find a video.
5. The 1958 Empire Games in Cardiff. The only time Wales has hosted the Commonwealth Games (or its predecessor). Admittedly, not a great sporting success for the hosts – Wales only managed one gold and 11th place out of 35 in the medal table. But just look at how mighty fine the old Cardiff Arms Park looked 56 years ago in the video above.
An Early Bath 