THERE was further missed medal agony for a Borders athlete in the final day of competition at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Despite some eye-catching performances from local sports stars at the Gold Coast none had reached the podium.

And the trend continued on Sunday morning as Gordon's Samantha Kinghorn was edged into fourth during the gruelling T54 Marathon.

The double sprint world-champion in her own category of T53 had earlier in the games finished fourth in the higher-classification T54 1500 metres.

In her concluding event, the 22-year-old was part of a four athlete breakaway that opened up a significant gap on the rest of the field.

But again, up against T54 athletes, she was gradually dropped in the closing stages by the eventual medalists - finishing 42 seconds behind English bronze medalist, Jade Jones.

Madison de Rozario won the gold medal for host nation Australia.

Sammi, who is coached by Ian Mirfin, told us: ‘I am gutted.

"I tried to so hard to stay with the leaders and did so for a very long time.

"In fact, we went at it so hard early on that I have set a PB for the half marathon.

"Then Maddy made a break and I was left with two T54 athletes in Eliza and Jade. I know these athlete and they are so strong so I was thinking ‘this isn’t good’.

"I gave it all I could and to finish fourth for the second time this week is agonising. It just feels like the worst position in some ways because you are so near yet so far from being on the podium.

"I’m now taking a holiday here for a few weeks to chill out and enjoy myself. So it will be later in the year before we get back to track training and competition."

West Linton's Chris O'Hare had been hoping to become the first Scot to claim a Commonwealth Games 1500 metres medal since Kelso's John Robson in 1978.

But the 27-year-old's hampered preparations due to a foot injury took their toll in the final.

Despite finishing eighth O'Hare was quick to offer his congratulations to Edinburgh AC team-mate Jake Wightman who did claim a bronze medal.

He told us: "The good thing here is the guys who are best prepared win the medals and that’s why I am delighted for Jake.

"You can be fit and healthy but you need to be race-fit and I am just missing that a wee bit.

"If it was August, it might be different but we don’t know.

"I was coming home with 200m to go just trying to pull in anyone who was dying and I could see Jake taking that third place. "We’re pals and I’ve known him for a number of years. It’s great for Team Scotland."

Berwickshire's Guy Learmonth had earlier narrowly failed to make the final of the 800 metres.

Scotland Rugby players missed out on the chance to play for a medal after being beaten in their final pool match against World Rugby Series leaders and Commonwealth champions, South Africa.

Team Scotland, which featured Selkirk's Lee Jones, Nyle Godsmark from Melrose and Hawick's Darcy Graham, had earlier beaten Papua New Guinea (27-0) and Malaysia (41-0) in their pool.

On the final day of competition Scotland beat Wales 19-12 to face Australia in the 5th/6th place play-off - eventually going down 26-0.

In the swimming pool Jedburgh's Lucy Hope reached two individual finals - finishing eighth in both the 200 metres freestyle and the 50 metres backstroke.

And she helped Scotland to within inches of a bronze medal in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay final.

Galashiels schoolgirl Beth Johnston performed well in her games debut by finishing fifth in her heat of the 200 metres individual medley.

Selkirk's Sarah Robertson helped Scotland's hockey team to a seventh-place finish.

The Tartan Hearts had earlier suffered defeats to Australia and New Zealand as well as drawing with Canada and beating Ghana in the pool section, before beating Malaysia 4-2 in the 7th/8th place play-off.

Peeblesshire cycling pair Grant Ferguson and Isla Short competed both on and off the road.

British champion Ferguson matched his fifth place finish on the cross-country course.

And 21-year-old Short also finished fifth after being in a medal position for much of the race.

Ferguson rode well to finish 35th in the road race, but Short was among the many riders who dropped out of the ladies road race.

Scotland netball team, which featured Jo Pettitt and Emily Nicholl, finished ninth following a 50-48 victory over Barbados in the play-off.