Fifty years ago on July 16th 1970 marked the opening ceremony of the ninth Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland. Team England may have lost their crown at the top of the medals table but recorded some historic wins north of the border.

A game of firsts

A record amount of 1383 athletes and 42 nations lined up in the Scottish capital city at the Meadowbank Stadium, in what was a Games of many firsts. As it was the first to use metric distances as well being the first to use electronic photo-finish technology. Edinburgh 1970 was also the first games that Queen Elizabeth II attended since becoming Head of the Commonwealth.

In the competitive arena Team England brought home 84 medals, which was the most of any country. But fell short of Australia’s total of 36 Gold medals, with 27 Gold, 25 Silver and 32 Bronze medals in total with Canada finishing third in the medals table

New Zealand's Sylvia Potts falls at the finish of the Women's 1500 metres, allowing England's Rita Ridley to take the gold medal

Badminton player Margaret Boxall was the most successful England athlete at the Games taking away two Gold’s in the women's and mixed doubles and a Bronze medal in the singles.

Track success

David Hemery took Men’s 110 metre hurdles gold, four years after winning the 120 yard hurdles at the 1966 Kingston Games. This was one of seven Athletics gold medals for England including an English one-two in the Women’s 1500 metres as Rita Ridley and Joan Page took gold and silver medals respectively.

David Hemery takes the last hurdle in the final of the 110-metre hurdles

Louis Martin took his third weightlifting gold medal in as many Commonwealth Games and Precious McKenzie also took a second weightlifting gold medal in his career. In lawn bowls David Bryant retained his men's singles title, eight years after winning it. Due to a lack of bowling greens in Jamaica, the sport did not feature in Kingston 1966 four years before. 

Louis Martin wins his third gold medal in as many games for England in Weightlifting

Boxer John Conteh, at one point in his career widely tipped to be a rival of the great Muhammad Ali, beat Titus Simba of Tanzania in a matter of seconds for the middleweight title at the age of just 19.

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