The men’s 88kg weightlifting is over, with Hafizuddin Bin Roslin Muhammad of Malaysia winning gold and getting a Commonwealth Games record of a combined 345 kilograms across snatch and clean and jerk.
New Zealand’s Cameron McTaggart picks up silver with 338kg – he went for a golden lift but couldn’t get it past his knees.
Then there’s a big drop to Scotland’s Angus Doig in bronze with 309 kilos, with Aussie rookie Ryven Ewing just 3 more kilos back after a 136kg snatch and 170 clean and jerk.
“Massively proud to be able to get here because it has been a big goal ever since I got into weightlifting,” he says.
In that answer – and indeed any time he says “proud”, “around”, “out” and “crowd” – you can hear a distinct brogue mixed in with an otherwise incredibly Aussie twang.
Ewing was born in Scotland, lived here until he was eight, returning to finish high school at prestigious rugby private school Merchiston.
And plenty of those old school mates were in the stands at the Armadillo this morning.
“When Victoria pulled out, it was pretty interesting for me to hear Glasgow was gonna be next,” he says.
“Kind of a culmination of two different worlds for me, so it’s very cool and I’ve got lots of friends and family in the crowd today. Just super grateful for all of them.”
He hasn’t been back since 2023, so he has some business to attend to now that his competition is done.
“Looking forward to catching up with a lot of people afterwards and enjoying myself as well.”
He, swimmer Iona Anderson and sprinter Torrie Lewis are just a few of the Australian team members with strong Scottish roots over here.
dan