Team Wales starts strong with first Commonwealth Games medal

Team Wales has claimed its first medal as swimmer Ela Letton-Jones won silver and set a new Welsh record on the opening day of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Swimming

Welsh spirit was fervent from early doors, as swimmers took to the starting block at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre.

Alexandra Bastone and Kyle Booth were two of the proud competitors in the morning session’s heats, placing 15th and 19th in the Women’s 400m Freestyle and Men’s 100m Breaststroke respectively.

Meanwhile, Josh Inglis secured a place in the semi-finals on his Commonwealth Games debut, placing 14th in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke heats, before ending his run with a 12th placed finish in the semi-finals.

Ela Letton-Jones came into the competition in sizzling form, having set three new Welsh records during a fantastic performance at this year’s Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

That form continued as she secured third place in the S13 100m Freestyle heats, before an amazing performance to claim Silver – Team Wales’ first medal of the summer – in the final with a personal best and Welsh record time of 01:04:30.

Theodora Taylor also qualified for the semi-finals in the Women’s 50m Butterfly, three years after medalling five times at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago. She did well to secure 10th in the heats, before matching the placement in the semi-finals.

While the Men’s 4x100m Relay team had the misfortune of being disqualified late on their heat, the Women’s team managed to claim a place in the final courtesy of a strong performance that placed them third in the heats.

In the final, the team gave everything they had, putting in an incredible shift to set a new Welsh record with a fantastic time of 03:39:81 to secure a fifth placed finish.

Bowls

There was plenty to celebrate as the day continued, with the SEC Centre playing host to four Team Wales Bowls fixtures throughout the afternoon and evening.

First up were Julie Thomas and Steffan James with their first fixture of the Games in the Para Mixed Pairs B2-B3 event. There was a double header for the duo, firstly taking on Australia in a dramatic match-up.

After a 4-2 loss in the first set the Welsh pair took the game to a tie-break with a 6-3 win in the second; from there, Thomas and James held their nerve to secure a 2-1 comeback victory, winning a nerve-wracking tie-break 2-0.

An evening game against England would be next, and things only got better as the pair claimed a 2-0 victory to maintain their 100% record.

Also in action was Ross Owen in the Men’s Singles, who couldn’t follow up his barnstorming opening win with a victory as he faced England’s Sam Tolchard.

Against a formidable opponent, Owen fell to a 2-0 defeat, and will look ahead to a meeting with Jamaica’s Robert Simpson on Saturday 25th.

And after their opening win against Canada put them on cloud nine, Amy Williams and Lauren Gowen took the momentum on to make it two from two as saw off Fiji with a strong 2-0 win.

Artistic Gymnastics

After a slow start, the Welsh team rallied together for an impressive final three rotations.

Whist the team result may be sixth Alexander Niscoveanu and Elliot Vernon will have additional chances to shine as they qualified for the individual all around competition, as well as Vernon making the parallel bars final and Niscoveanu making the horizontal bar final.

Team Wales is one of only six nations that has competed in every Games since it began in 1930, then known as the Empire Games. At Glasgow 2026, Wales are represented by 115 athletes competing across all 10 sports on the programme.

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