Suddenly it's all over - 11 Days of competition, 71 nations and a Commonwealth audience
Last night at Hampden, Usain Bolt wowed the crowds and shrugged off the negative publicity of the previous days. Here are today's headlines
Today it is the Cycling Road Race in the City Centre. The women's event started at 8am and there is a good crowd out supporting them. The rain from last night has stopped and the roads are dry. There are some tight curves on the course - here at junction of Argyll Street and Buchanan Street
Junction of Buchanan Street and St Vincent Street
Nelson Mandela Place
So now it is time to leave Glasgow and make tracks home
Parting shots:
On bus to Edinburgh Airport
Having done the same role at both London 2012 games, it would be easy to compare and contrast. On reflection I don't think you can compare them - the budgets are in different leagues. London was £9billion, Glasgow just £500million.
OK we had little niggles- meal vouchers, the quality and choice of food for example. But did those niggles really impact on our enjoyment of being at Glasgow 2014. Emphatically no!
We had extremes of weather - hot sunny 28c at the start to torrential rain at the end. Did that diminish the enthusiasm of the volunteers and spectators? No, Saltires, Union Flags abounded. The crowd cheered the underdogs eg at Rugby 7s how they cheered the Ugandans
One mention should be made of the excellent work that the military and police did in manning the security checkpoints. In particular military personnel repeated their efficient yet respectful approach to personal screening they had demonstrated at London 2012. Some of our airport operators should again take heed of how it can be done
Again it was a pleasure to meet a wide range of athletes, to congratulate them on their success or acknowledge their contribution whatever the result of their competition
Likewise observing team officials, coaches, medical staff and technical officials is at times like watching a complicated multilevel chess game
We were lucky to be inside the venue, but we must acknowledge the massive contribution of our fellow volunteers working outside and throughout the city and at all the venues in all weathers
There were only 15000 Clydesiders (compare that to London 2012 of 75000). How many will continue to volunteer on the future?
So here's a thought:
The Rio 2016 Volunteer applications open on 28 August
Go to www.rio2016.com and choose the English version. They will be providing a language pack to successful volunteers
As they have said at Glasgow 2014 - 'Bring It On'
Yes Glasgow was the Friendly City for the Friendly Games
So this is the final post. I hope you have enjoyed it, found the backstage info interesting and perhaps even learnt more about Glasgow
Time to bring the blog to an end - so how do I end it?
It has to be a few photos:
...and like previous blogs there can be only one final iconic photo:
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