THE 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham has been hailed as a great success with Scotland collecting a record number of medals.

And the Borders athletes more than played their part.

On Saturday July 31 Newcastleton raised swimmer Stephen Clegg won silver in the 50m S13 final finishing one hundredth of a second behind winner Nicolas Guy Turbide from Canada in a personal best time of 24.33 seconds.

On Wednesday August 3 Peebles swimmer Gregor Swinney collected a bronze medal as a member of the of the 4 x 100m Medley Relay team that finished in third place. Gregor also reached the semi-finals of the 50m and 100m butterfly races.

Then on Thursday August 4 Gordon’s Samantha Kinghorn won a bronze medal in the T53/T54 1500m wheelchair race at the Alexander Stadium and was pipped on the line for silver by Angela Ballard who finished eight hundredth of a second ahead.

And on Monday August 8 Gala Squash Club coach Rory Stewart won a bronze medal in the Men’s Doubles along with partner Greg Lobban.

The pair beat beat Malaysian pair Eain Yow NG and Chee Wern YEUN in this final, winning the opening game 11-10 then taking the second game 11-8.

Rory also reached the last 16 of the Men’s Singles and last eight on the Mixed Doubles with partner Georgia Adderley.

Elsewhere Selkirk’s Sarah Robertson captained Scotland Women’s Hockey team and scored in the 4-2 victory over South Africa. A 1-0 defeat to New Zealand followed before an 11-0 victory over Kenya gave the team some hope but their medal chances ended with a 2-0 defeat to Australia. In the 5th/6th play off Scotland lost 3-1 to Canada.

The Scotland Women’s Rugby 7s squad containing Borderers Lisa Thomson from Hawick and Chloe Rollie from Jedburgh along with Biggar’s Emma Orr finished in sixth place. Scotland lost their opening game 31-12 against the impressive Fiji and this was followed by a 50-0 defeat to Australia.

They responded with an impressive 33-12 victory over South Africa which meant a 5th-8th place semi-final against Sri Lanka whom they beat 58-0. The 5th place final ended with a 29-7 defeat to England.

The Men’s 7s squad included Jedburgh’s Lee Jones who was competing in his fourth Games, former Melrose player Ross McCann and current Southern Knight Jacob Henry.

The men began their campaign with an impressive 41-0 victory over Tonga which was followed by a 50-12 win over Malaysia.A 34-0 defeat to South Africa was followed by a 34-7 quarter-final loss to Fiji. In the 5-8 semi final Scotland beat Kenya 22-12 in a cliff-hanger but lost 29-19 to Samoa to finish in sixth place.

Scotland’s Netball squad included Lauren Tait from West Linton and Emily Nicholl from Biggar.

The Scots opened their campaign with an 83-30 defeat to Australia followed by a 48-42 loss to Wales. Jamaica made it three defeats with a 78-34 victory before the Scots secured their first win, beating Barbados 72-28. The final pool match ended in a 65-46 defeat to South Africa setting up a 9/10 classification match against Northern Ireland which Scotland won 43-33.

Duns boxer Megan Reid’s hopes of becoming the first Scottish woman to win a Commonwealth games medal ended with a unanimous points defeat to Gemma Paige Richardson from England.

Libby Clegg from Newcastleton who has won numerous medals as a sprinter swapped her spikes for a set of wheels and finished in fourth place in the Women’s Tandem Sprint and fourth in the Women’s Tandem B 1000m Time Trial.

Isla Short from Peebles finished fourth in the Women's Mountain Bike Cross Country final.

Lucy Hope from Jedburgh finished sixth in the 200m freestyle final and reached the 100m freestyle semi-final.

Duns badminton player Callum Smith reached the round of eight in the singles after beating Duane March from the Falkland islands 2-0 then Ghana’s Kelvin Evans Alphous 2-0 before losing to England’s Toby Penty 2-0.

In the Mixed Team event singles he lost 2-0 to Kean Yew LOH from Singapore.

Borders MP John Lamont believes that the athletes performances will prove inspirationsl for local youngsters.

He said: “Team Scotland have outdone themselves once again and it was great to see the saltire atop the podium at the Commonwealth Games.

“Of course, Borderers played their part too and even brought home some medals.

“This does wonders for our young people who can see people like them, from their own area, achieving at the very highest level, and proving that the sky's the limit.

“It was a fantastic Games put on by Birmingham and a real celebration of sport.”