Here, AFP Sports looks at some of the moments that put a smile back on the face of the “Friendly Games”.
Bolt’s highland jig
Despite a newspaper report that the fastest man in the world Usain Bolt had claimed to be having a less than splendid time in the Glasgow rain, he brought the house down at Hampden Park on the final night of athletics action.
Bolt claimed his first Commonwealth gold in the men’s 4x100m relay, but also entertained the crowd with his dance moves to “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)” from the Scottish band ‘The Proclaimers’ as he tried to keep warm ahead of the race. Ugandan uproar at rugby The attendance at Ibrox for two days of rugby sevens broke the record for a sevens event as 171,000 spectators poured in for four sessions of action over two days.
However, it wasn’t the All Blacks or gold medallists South Africa who got the loudest cheer, but African minnows Uganda.
“Uganda were being beaten, quite heavily at the time, and almost the entire crowd started to chant ‘U-gan-da, U-gan-da!’, that’s the Glasgow character,” said Lord Smith of Kelvin, chairman of the organising committee.
Dan Wallace was one of Scotland’s many heroes in a record medal haul as he claimed gold and two silvers in the pool.
However, nicknamed “Braveheart” for his celebratory cry of “Freedom” when winning 400m individual medley gold, he also made a splash out of the pool as he entered his final race dressed in a kilt and admitted the Games had brought him plenty of female attention on the dating app ‘Tinder’.
President fumbles the baton
After a bright and colourful athletes’ entrance to the opening ceremony, the stage was set for Queen Elizabeth II to officially open the Commonwealth Games by reading a message that had been concealed within the Queen’s Baton on its eight month long trip around the Commonwealth.
However, farcically the President of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Prince Tunku Imran, struggled to remove the message from inside the baton and had to call on the help of Scottish legend and six-time Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy to keep the party going and pass the baton onto the Queen. Dancing in the streets of Kiribati The tiny Pacific Island of Kiribati had never won a medal at the Commonwealth Games until David Katoatau smashed the competition record by lifting 200kg in the clean and jerk to claim gold in the men’s 105kg weightlifting competition.
And Katoatau showed nimble feet to go with his brute strength as he danced his way off stage in celebration.
