CLOSING CEREMONY:
NETBALL:
Gold for Australia!
Stealthily, grindingly, but at the end with a great rush of goals, Australia's new generation of netballers have seized their inheritance. Having motivated themselves with images and stories of the scaling of Mount Everest, by Sunday afternoon they found themselves alone on the summit.
The last time the Diamonds won a Commonwealth Games gold medal, their team list was stacked with the sport's household names. Among them, Catherine Cox, Liz Ellis and Kathryn Harby-Williams remain three of their country's five most-capped players.
As the wheel turned, New Zealand had its moment, winning Commonwealth gold in Melbourne and Delhi and a world championship in Kingston. The Silver Ferns developed an All Black-like aura. But in Glasgow, a magnificent seven of Australian starters played the entire final and ultimately ran away with it, destroying the Silver Ferns 58-40. The names of Laura Geitz, Julie Corletto, Renae Hallinan, Kim Ravaillion, Madi Robinson, Natalie Medhurst and Caitlin Bassett are set to become as gilt-edged and familiar as those of the retired champions.
HOCKEY:
Hockeyroos keep perfect Commonweath Games record alive.
Glasgow didn't turn on its finest on Sunday. Fortunately, the Kookaburras did.
The shivering on the dais was worth it, though, for the Australians. A 4-0 win over India kept in place the country's flawless record since hockey was added to the Games schedule in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
A fifth successive gold medal was set up by a hat-trick to penalty corner specialist Chris Ciriello, whose mother was born in Kolkata and whose grandfather once played for India.
SQUASH:
It had been a long wait for David Palmer but competing in his fourth Commonwealth Games, the former world No.1 finally had his gold medal. Then he had two.
Palmer teamed with another former world No.1 Rachael Grinham to win the mixed doubles and was back on court 15 minutes later to join Cameron Pilley for the men's doubles. The pair came from one game down to beat English duo Nick Matthew and Adrian Grant.
MEDAL TALLY:
There's talk of an internal review given it has been Australia's worst performance at the games in a long, long time.
