THE question was asked at the start and will be raised again now Birmingham 2022 is over: do the Commonwealth Games still have a place on the sporting calendar every four years?
They are not the Olympics, and the importance of these Games was initially dented by a raft of stay-away stars, yet still they resonate for many athletes, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of fans that came to watch.
Adam Peaty had said he was not bothered about the Games, as he struggled to regain his form and fitness after suffering a broken foot. But the subsequent manner of his victory celebration in the 50metre breaststroke suggested otherwise.
To say the Games do not matter would be to rob so many of their standout moment. Take the penultimate night inside Alexander Stadium, which was packed from morning to night, for two contrasting moments.
There was Alastair Chalmers' late lunge for the line that won Guernsey a bronze in the 400m hurdles, his parents charging down from the top tier of the stands to envelop him with the island's flag.
This story is from the August 09, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
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This story is from the August 09, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
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