England won so many medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow — 174 in all and 58 gold, comfortably the most of the 71 competing nations — that it was easy to become complacent. ‘Oh look, we’ve picked up another one in the lawn bowls’. The nation topped the medals table in boxing, diving, gymnastics, triathlon and judo, where they were level with Scotland. England also came second in squash, cycling, table tennis, hockey, power-lifting, shooting and swimming. The numbers are so mind-boggling it doesn’t seem to mean very much after a while (as long as England are ahead of Australia, of course). That is not to disparage the men and women who have stood proudly on the podium, for you can only beat the opponent in front of you, but such enormous success deserves some context.
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England topped the medals table in boxing, diving, gymnastics and judo
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Nearly half of England’s medals came in the ‘optional’ sports at these Games
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Adam Gemili, Claudia Fragapane and Ross Murdoch are all future stars
Podium finish: @placeholder and his 4x100m team-mates pose with their silver medals after finishing second in the relay