The Commonwealth Games Boxing Competition Had To Be Postponed Because Of A Set Of Faulty Scales

Their country came to prominence when the Pacific Island government sold the rights to their ‘.tv’ internet suffix. Now Tuvalu, the smallest nation competing at the Games, are embarking on the biggest two weeks in their sporting history. They may have fewer inhabitants than the whole of the Games village - the island has shrunk 2sq km in a decade - but the competing athletes are relishing proper training facilities for the first time. After all it took three flights and four days to arrive and shot putter Farapelu Sileti has to train on the island's airstrip.

The Saint Helena team, Britain’s second oldest remaining colony after Bermuda, showed us how travel used to be for sporting teams.Its four-man squad - all shooters whose guns have been lent by the Jersey team - took the RMS Helena, the only boat for inhabitants, which took five days to reach Cape Town. Amazingly, they had to leave for Delhi on August 26 as the boat was being taken to the Cape for repair.At 69, Cyril Leo is the oldest member and is accompanied by son Rico. Their trip has been paid for by the British government and Leo junior says he would like to train in Britain. Diary wishes them well.

Adlington was delighted to be the first English athlete on the honours board, and she was soon followed by Michael Rock, who claimed silver in the 200m butterfly, and the men's 4x100m freestyle quartet, who finished second behind Australia. Scotland's David Carry completed the British haul by winning bronze in the 400m freestyle, though Australia put down an impressive marker by winning three out of the five gold medals on offer.Adlington will have plenty more opportunities to upgrade the colour of her medal when she competes in the 400m and 800m freestyle, the events in which she triumphed in Beijing two years ago, as well as the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Like Adlington, Carlin had to battle back in the final metres after being down in sixth place at the 150-metre mark. Her achievement augurs well for Britain's prospects in the 4x200m relay at the London Olympics, particularly when Jo Jackson, who finished fifth on Monday, is back to full fitness after an illness-plagued year.To be the first Welsh woman in however long to win a medal is such an amazing feeling," Carlin, 20 said. "At 150, I knew I just had to keep digging in and pushing the limits and to come away with a medal makes me so happy.Rock, who shot to prominence last December when he defeated an unrested Michael Phelps at the Duel in the Pool meet in Manchester, led from the front in his 200m butterfly final and had half a body-length's advantage at the final turn before being overhauled by South African Chad Le Clos.

Even trouble-free bus journeys have been taking about 45 minutes, leaving swimmers facing three hours or more on a bus each day as they travel to and from morning and evening sessions."You spend most of the day on the bus," Adlington said. "If there's traffic or anything, you're on there for an hour. Our bus got lost this morning so we were sat on there 55 minutes.You just have to get up early because the buses are so unpredictable. The transport isn't running as smoothly as we all thought.It's one of those things that's out of our control. We've just got to get on with it. Everyone is in the same situation. I just try to rest up on the bus. I always get the seat at the front so I can put my feet up and try to recover as much as possible.