Glasgow fired up to host greatest ever Commonwealth Games ahead of opening ceremony
Last Updated: 23/07/14 9:46pm
The 20th Commonwealth Games will kick off at Celtic Park in Glasgow on Wednesday with 4,500 athletes from 18 different sports ready for action.
The Queen's baton has been travelling up and down the country for the last six weeks and four years after India hosted the Games, over a billion people worldwide are expected to watch 12 days of dazzling competition.
Edinburgh last hosted this magnificent event in Scotland in 1970 and 1986 but now's the time for Glasgow and they're promising to host the greatest of all time.
First up though is the ceremony from 9pm on Wednesday night. Organisers have kept details close to their chest but have promised it will speak to the rest of the Commonwealth about shared values with a distinctly Glaswegian accent.
Singers Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle and Amy MacDonald are on stand-by at Celtic Park.
The build-up has been predictably clouded in stories of over-spend - the Games are set to cost £563million, about £200m more than initial estimates - but with over 1.1million tickets sold, the city appears fit to party.
Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Michael Cavanagh says: "We have learned from Manchester and particularly London 2012, but we are ready to deliver something spectacular."
The first Games was in Hamilton, Canada in 1930 with 400 athletes representing 11 countries in six sports. There will be athletes from 71 nations strutting their stuff on Scottish soil over the next two weeks with singer Kylie Minogue waiting in the wings to grace the closing ceremony.
Bolt fit to race
As well as the individual home nations, there will be plenty of international class exhibiting their skills, and none bigger than six-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt who says he's finally recovered from foot surgery and a hamstring injury.
The Jamaican sprinter insists he has a sub-10 second in his locker having trained twice a day to prepare for Glasgow and says: "It's been rough, but I've been through it a couple times so I know what it takes to get back so I'm just pushing on."
Closer to home, the finest athletes will be on show from Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
When Edinburgh were hosts 18 years ago, Scotland won 33 medals but only three were golds. Judo player Euan Burton will be carrying the country's flag, but it may just be swimmer Michael Jamieson to be the athlete to increase their golden haul.
The 25-year-old goes in the 200m breaststroke in his home city on the first day of competition and says: "I've woken up for training every morning with the world-record time on my alarm clock. It's the first thing I see when I wake up. Psychologically, that's what I'm aiming for."
Team England will be desperate to move back up the medals table having slipped to third in 2010 for the first time since 1994 and will be confident of overtaking India, although the Australians may just still prove too powerful.
Brownlees have high hopes
A foot injury has ruled out hot favourite heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and doubts persist over long distance superstar Mo Farah, but there will be high hopes for triathlon's all-conquering Brownlee brothers.
Their form has been wobbly this season but if all goes to plan the Yorkshire duo should both be on the podium. Olympic bronze medallist Jonny says: "I'm feeling good. The Commonwealth Games is a one-day event and I love racing one-day when all the pressure's on. This has been a major aim since the start of the year."
Out of all the home nations, it is probably the Welsh who have been sleepless this week. You can't question their consistency - three golds and 19 medals at both of the last two Games - but they've had to reduce their medal target with several high-profile withdrawals.
Injury has ruled out cyclist Becky James and world triathlon champions Non Stanford and Helen Jenkins, on Monday weightlifter Faye Pittman and judo player Kyle Davies followed suit and on Tuesday worse was to follow with the news that Olympic silver medallist Fred Evans cannot compete after being refused accreditation.
One bright hope for Team Wales though is rhythmic gymnast Frankie Jones, who represented Team GB at the 2012 Olympics and won a silver medal in the hoop at the 2010 Games.
The 23-year-old is flagbearer this week and the team's chef de mission Brian Davies says: "There is no doubt the whole sport in Wales has grown off the back of her personal success. Without her, we would not have had such a thriving gymnastics team here in Glasgow."
Northern Ireland will be in buoyant mood after a stunning effort four years ago as they finished above Jamaica and Pakistan in Delhi, helped by three boxing golds.
Boxer Paddy Barnes, 2010 light-flyweight champion, looks good to repeat their glories in the ring, although his build-up has been hampered due to an aborted overnight drugs test and a visit from anti-doping officials early on Tuesday.
Barnes, who won bronze medals at both the Beijing and London Olympic, tweeted: "Anti-doping let me home at 2am last night. Wake me up at 7.30am for another test! This is some preparation!"
The games motto this year is "People, Place, Passion". There are plenty of athletes to exemplify this powerful message and one example guaranteed to stir the emotions comes from Rwanda.
Road cyclist Adrien Niyonshuti learned his trade on a wooden bike with wooden wheels and was the first Rwandan cyclist to compete at an Olympics in 2012 in the mountain biking.
Niyonshuti was aged 7 in 1994 when he lost six brothers and a total of 60 family members in a genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people in 100 days in Rwanda.
On competing, he says: "It's the thing that helps me forget my problems. I lost my family, my brothers, my grandmother. I have to survive this life I've been given. You never forget, you just have to be positive."
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