Robbie Simpson won Team Scotland’s final medal of the 2018 Commonwealth Games today, in the Men’s Marathon. The Banchory runner claimed bronze in a time of 2:19:36 to take Scotland’s final medal count to 44 (9 gold, 13 silver, 22 bronze); with a final medal table position of eighth.

Despite Robbie’s medal there were mixed emotions for Team Scotland on the marathon course. Callum Hawkins, competing in his second Games, had built up a strong lead of over two minutes at the 40km mark before collapsing in the final stages of the race. He was taken to hospital as is standard procedure; but is alert and recovering well.

Speaking after the race, Robbie said: “I am absolutely delighted to get the bronze. I’m disappointed for Callum for not making it to the end as he was going so well. I really felt bad passing him, lying on the ground like that.

“I’ve spent the last four weeks with Callum and he has been great for me, giving me confidence and showing me how the best guys prepare, so I’ve learned a lot from Callum. When I was halfway around and Callum was in the lead, I was thinking I want to get to the end and do the whole Scottish team proud.

“When I saw him lying there, I wanted to stop and see if he was all right, but at the same time I wasn’t feeling that great myself, so I wanted to get to the line before the same thing happened to me and try and get a medal.”

“I was delighted when at two kilometres from the end, at that point I realised I was in the bronze medal position and I just had to get to the end in one piece. With all the people cheering me on and seeing all the Scottish flags, I just thought, right, I’ve got a second wind and I’ve got to make it to the end.”

Basketball

Team Scotland’s Basketball team took to the court for the final time today against New Zealand in the bronze medal match at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. Scotland, who are unranked in the FIBA World Rankings lined up against the ‘Tall Blacks’, who are ranked 38^th, having overcome England, Cameroon, India and Nigeria on their way to the medal matches.

The Scots started strongly and edged ahead after the first quarter. The Kiwis fought back and led from half-time onwards, eventually taking the match 79-69. Afterwards, Kieron Achara said: “I’m very proud, very proud of our guys. We had some unbelievable spells in the game, we clawed our way back. As a leader of the team, I didn’t bring my A-game today, I’m very disappointed in that.

“The effort, you can’t doubt the effort, we were there from the start. We’ve represented our country well. We came out here to medal, we didn’t achieve that, but like I said, I’m so proud of the guys. What we brought to this tournament, being underdogs, we had that grit, we had that determination, we all made our country proud.”

Rugby Sevens

Team Scotland Rugby Sevens finished sixth at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Robina Stadium today.

The Scots opened their day-two account with an impressive 19-12 win over home-nations rivals Wales, with George Horne combining his ever-presence in support and lighting acceleration to score twice, before Jamie Farndale strode over for his sixth try of the weekend.

The win set up a 5^th / 6^th placed play-off against host nation Australia, who defeated Scotland 26-0 to bring an end to both teams’ part in the weekend’s rugby.

Squash

Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban took to the show court today for the final time in the bronze medal match against English pair James Willstrop and Declan James on the show court at Oxenford Studios. The English, number four seeds took a tough first game 11-9, and won the second by the same score to take the match 2-0 and along with it, the bronze medal.

The result leaves the Scottish second seeds fourth in the competition. After today’s match Greg Lobban said: “We are very disappointed. We didn’t want to be playing that match, we wanted to play for gold. The Gold Coast has done a good job, the crowd has been really good. Birmingham has a lot to live up to.”