Team England, four years on from their impressive showing on home soil in Manchester, took a team of 348 athletes down under and returned home with 36 gold, 40 silver and 37 bronze medals to secure second place in the medals table.

Whilst falling some way short of Australia in the overall medals table, the statistics were very encouraging: Team England won medals in 15 of the 16 sports and in every team sport, plus more than half of the 348 English athletes were victorious. This was all achieved with just under a hundred fewer athletes than at Manchester 2002 and more than 8,000 miles away.

It was a historic Games for Mick Gault. Already the Commonwealth Games’ most decorated shooter, Mick went on to overtake the great Karen Pickering for medals won by an English competitor. Kelly Sotherton took heptathlon gold, with Jessica Ennis claiming bronze in the same event and would go on to become Olympic champion in London. Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and Victoria Pendleton, all gold medallists in London, also competed in Melbourne.