Neil Fachie OBE struck gold for the sixth time at a Commonwealth Games on Thursday night as he became the most successful athlete in Team Scotland history. His six gold and one silver medal move him above bowls legend Alex Marshall MBE to the top of the all-time list.
There was a further medal for Scotland’s Women’s Team Sprint trio of Maddy Silcock, Iona Moir and Lauren Bell, as they broke the Scottish record for the second time in the day to win bronze.
Winning the first gold medal of the Track Cycling programme at Glasgow 2026, Neil Fachie and pilot Aaron Pope set the pace in the Men’s Tandem B Kilometre, fourth out of the six pairings to take to the track.
Fachie, who almost retired after Paris and only resumed training late last year, and pilot Pope, who he only linked up with in March, gave off the impression they have been working together for years, such was the quality of their ride.
Powering out the gate, the pair were quickest all the way, holding on bravely on an agonisingly painful last lap, which is always the way in this event. Stopping the clock at 1.00.162, remarkably just two tenths slower than the Games record Fachie set with Lewis Stewart four years ago, the pair knew they had a medal, but had to wait to find out what colour.
The Australians couldn’t better their time, so it was all eyes on Wales. Marginally up from the get go, they started to fade in the closing stages, hitting the line in 1.00.546, so it was gold for Scotland.
After receiving their gold medals, and shedding a tear as Flower of Scotland belted out around the Glasgow International Arena, Fachie reflected:
“I don’t think we truly expected that the gold was coming today, so to win it in front of this crowd is magnificent. To run up into the crowd, probably get a ton of fines because you’re not really meant to do that, but to go and see my son who’s three-years-old and give him a huge cuddle was just mind-blowing.
“This crowd has been immense. I knew it would be, it was amazing in 2014 and it was amazing again. To sing the anthem with everyone, I tried my best but there were a few tears.
“Aaron’s been a pleasure to ride with, he’s made it fun again, and it’s been the best couple of weeks I’ve had in a long, long time…Aaron’s the life and soul of the team.”
In the women’s team sprint, the trio of Maddy Silcock, Iona Moir and Lauren Bell produced a sensational ride to take a place on the podium.
Taking on Australia in the battle for bronze, Maddy Silcock produced a superb lap to keep Scotland in the fight over the fast-starting Australians.
Iona Moir wrestled control in the second lap, before Highlander Bell carried the home team across the line to claim Scotland’s first team sprint medal in 16 years – breaking their own record in the process with a time of 47.185, having already surpassed the old record in qualifying earlier in the day.
Moir said: “We’re quite a new team working together but we managed to pull out a pretty good ride here in the final. A big thank you to everyone in the crowd and to Scottish Cycling and everyone supporting – it’s been an amazing day.”
Bell said: “We’ve gelled really well and everyone executed what they wanted to perfectly, especially Maddy as this is her first international and she handled it with such grace and courage. We’ve all done our best and got ourselves a bronze medal.”
In the morning session, first up for Scotland were the Men’s Team Pursuit quartet of Michael Gill, Elliot Rowe, Tim Shoreman and Logan Maclean, and they smashed the Scottish record with a time of 3.56.866, but just missed out on a medal ride.
In fact, it was three team events and three new national records, as the Men’s Team Sprint of Niall Monks, Lyall Craig and Pete Mitchell also set a new Scottish best, but came up just 0.2 seconds short of a medal ride.
