Why the Commonwealth Games are important to athletes from Northern Ireland?

Then there was the emotion. The scream that judoka Rachael Hawkes let out on winning bronze after losing the same fight four years ago was almost primal, it meant so much to her.

There were the tears of bowler Chloe Wilson after winning bronze with Shauna O’Neill in the women’s pairs.

Wilson, 23, and O’Neill, 26, have put to bed forever the myth that bowls is only played by pensioners.

Winning a medal is one thing but doing it with your best friend is something special.

“Words can’t even describe how much it means. Just to be standing up there with Shauna, it’s something really special,” Wilson said with tears in her eyes.

O’Neill said the moment “is going to live with me for the rest of my life.”

Gary Kelly had won bronze in the men’s singles bowls in Delhi in 2010 and a silver four years ago.

In Glasgow it was another bronze in the singles but that elusive gold would finally come in the men’s pairs with Adam McKeown, himself now a two-time Commonwealth Games champion.

Bowls isn’t an Olympic sport so the Commonwealth Games is the pinnacle.

“The Commonwealth Games is the biggest opportunity for us, for media exposure, and for people that maybe wouldn’t normally view our game and our sport,” said Kelly

“It’s incredibly important, and it’s been fantastic for it to be part of this and for it to be respected as one of the six core sports of the Commonwealth Games. I think it deserves that.”