Judo stars Allan and Wilson claim Commonwealth silverware
Finlay Allan and Malin Wilson made hay with a silver medal to mark judo’s return to the Commonwealth Games.
The martial art gave Glasgow 2014 some brilliant moments and 13 medals for the home team, including both in men’s and women’s heavyweight classes.
First it was down to the nation’s wee lightweights to make an impression with the sport reinstated - with Dundee’s Allan and Inverness-born Wilson doing just that.
The Coventry Stadium was packed to the rafters with world-class judo competitions on these shores as scarce as hen’s teeth.
Allan was frustrated by Mozambique’s Mauro Nassone in his 66kg first-round bout and had to wait more than two minutes to throw for ippon.
He punished Zambia’s Steven Mungandu for two early shido fouls and held his nerve to beat Jasleen Singh Saini with golden score extra-time looming to guarantee at least silver.
The gold medal bout in the final block didn’t go his way as he lost out to Cypriot Georgios Balarjishvili, crushed in the immediate aftermath by missing out on the big prize.
Allan said: "It was a good fight – a tough fight. Obviously I wanted to come home with a gold.
“I think that eventually I will be happy with the silver medal, but as of now, I'm gutted. It's still pretty raw."
On the Games itself he said: "It has been probably the highest calibre of competition that I've fought in, so it's been a great experience overall.
“I'm still gutted. I will feel a bit better about it after I've had time to reflect."
The emotions were contrasting for Wilson, 27, who took bronze at 57kg after winning a battle of Brits, defeating Lele Nairne from England by a golden point.
Wilson beat Kamini Sri Segaran of Malaysia in the last 16 but lost to England's Acelya Toprak in the quarter finals.
She said: “It’s not quite sunk in yet because I’ve never come off the mat and been asked so many questions. I came off the mat really tired and it hasn’t sunk in yet that I’ve got a medal.
“Bronze is a hard one to win but it’s a harder one to lose. When you’ve lost them, that makes it even more special when you’ve won it.
“You know that feeling of needing to win it. I had my coaches, one in the chair and one in the stand, and they were both shouting at me.
“When I couldn’t think, they did my thinking for me and I just did the grabbing. It’s been an amazing experience here.”
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