The 5 biggest stories of the Commonwealth Games

England dominate the team gymnastics

As the crowds gathered inside the brand new SSE Hydro arena to see the days gymnastics, there were high hopes surrounding both the male and female English teams – but few could have predicted the extent of their domination.

The men took to the floor first and the team made up of Olympians, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas, Sam Oldham and Louis Smith MBE as well as Junior European all-around champion Nile Wilson were forced to draw on all of their experience at the highest level early on as Sam Oldham was rushed to hospital after a nasty landing from the vault. The men rallied, with Whitlock and Wilson in exceptional form, and Team England won with a fantastic score of 266.804 points, despite Oldham’s absence forcing him out of two of the rotations on the vault.

A strong Scottish team featuring 2012 stars Dan Purvis and Dan Keatings put on an inspired performance in front a loud home crowd and secured a silver medal with a team score of 257.603 points.

Next up, the women took to the arena, with Rebecca Downie, Ruby Harrold, Claudia Fragapane, Kelly Simm and Hannah Whelan representing the English. Like their male counterparts, the women were forced to show all of their quality in the later stages of the competition as a nervous start, in particular on the beam, meant that a gold medal place was far from certain. In a team that featured senior Olympians Hannah Whelan and Becky Downie as well as GB squad member Kelly Simm, it was the 16 year old Claudia Fragapane who produced the display of the afternoon and held her nerve to put in a performance of the highest quality both on the beam and on the floor to secure a gold medal after a team total of 167.555 points.

While the Australians impressed with a score of 161.546 points, enough for the silver medal, they were ran all the way to the wire by the Welsh, a team made up of Raer Theaker, Lizzie Beddoe, Jessica Hogg, Angel Romaeo and Georgina Hockenhull came impossibly close to the silver medal but had to settle from bronze despite an impressive 160.095 points.

Springboks end All Blacks Sevens run

Rugby Sevens, a sport being planned for its first time inclusion at the Rio Olympics in 2016, was under close inspection by the organisers and it did not disappoint. The teams from the southern-hemisphere were dominant with New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Samoa all progressing to the semi-finals and England, Wales and Scotland crashing out at the quarter final stage.

The All-Blacks were understandably the favourites going into the final against South Africa having won their last 30 matches at the Commonwealth Games and the top prize at every Games since the sport’s introduction in 1998. Despite a strong start from New Zealand with Sherwin Stowers scoring, it was through Seabelo Senatia that the Springboks forced their way back into the tie and taking a 12-7 lead early in the second half. The memorable upset was secured by the flying back Cecil Afrika who scored the final try which was enough to fight off the late All Black resurgence and give South Africa a 17-12 victory.

English athletics medal haul

Tuesday provided a fantastic night for English athletics with Will Sharman claiming silver in the 110m hurdles and narrowly falling short of the gold by an excruciating four hundredths of a second with Andrew Riley of Jamaica taking gold. The successes did not end there; Leicester and England’s Laura Samuel smashed her personal best by 34cm and took silver in the triple jump.

Ex-World Junior silver medalist Laura Weightman took silver again after a perfect execution of her race tactics in the 1500m, holding off Kenyan star Hellen Obiri and Canadian Kate van Buskirk to finish strongly only behind Kenya’s brilliant Faith Kipyegon. Finally, decathlete Ashley Bryant capped off a fine performance over the 10 events and brought home an astounding fifth silver for England that day.

Nigeria stun India in team table tennis

The Nigerian table tennis team produced one of the most memorable displays of the Games to shock India in the bronze medal playoff. With Singapore proving too strong for Nigeria in the Semi Final and eventually England in the final, it was left for Nigeria and India to battle it out at the Scotstoun Sports Campus in front of a truly absorbed crowd.

In the deciding game, despite Indian opponent Achanta being ranked No.40 in the world and Nigerian Ojo Onaolapo ranking well outside of the top 300, it was the Nigerian who held his nerve and brought the crowd to their feet and many teammates to tears with a superb performance to secure the bronze medal for Nigeria.

13 year old Davies takes brilliant swimming bronze

Few would have predicted that it would fall on 13 year old Erraid Davies and Scotland’s youngest competitor to provide one of the week’s biggest shocks and take a bronze medal in the SB9 100m breaststroke; much to the delight of her home crowd. Hailing from the Shetland Islands, Davies smashed her previous personal best twice on finals day and swam an amazing 1.21.38 to become the youngest ever Commonwealth medalist.

Such an incredible performance at such a young age only highlights her potential as a swimmer that could dominate the Paralympics for many years to come and a strong performance in Rio would be most impressive, but less surprising.