Talk of the Games, Day 9: 'I just want to see my mum and eat pizza'
Some of the best quotes from Day 9 of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
A selection of what the athletes have had to say on the ninth day of action in Glasgow.
Women's 65kg gold medallist Sacha Hickey of England recounted how she took up Boxing through sports simulation video game Wii:
"We started in my mum and dad's living room. One year we got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas and we were playing the boxing game. Then we just went from there. My dad had a good friend, Mickey Burke, and he let me into the gym. At a time when women's boxing wasn't really a thing, he accepted me, and yeah, we went from there. Now we're Commonwealth Games champions."
Sada Williams of Barbados offered a diagnosis after taking silver in the Women's 400m final on another day of unsettled conditions:
"The weather is so bipolar. One minute the sun is out, the next minute it's raining, then it's windy - it really needs to make up its mind."
It's fair to say Nathan Maguire of England won the gold medal the hard way in the Men’s 1500m T54 on Saturday:
"With 400 metres to go, I was panicking - I was genuinely thinking, how the hell am I going to get out of this box? The Aussies played a blinder - they dictated the entire thing. I was at their mercy. I was literally going backwards, forwards, sideways, backwards, forwards, sideways."
Given that they come from three islands separated by 3200km of South Atlantic Ocean, it's fair to say the St Helena Men's 4x100m Relay team's preparation was all a bit 'last minute', explained one of them, Tye Leo-Stroud:
"Well, the training experience we had was when we all got together at the Games. Before this, we'd never actually met."
Jamaican goal keeper Shamera Sterling-Humphrey after her team's shock 46-45 win over Australia in their Netball semi-final:
"Big players step up in big games, and I'm glad I was able to do that for my team today."
After winning gold in the Men's 400m, it's fair to say Nigeria's Samuel Ogazi is setting his career sights high:
“Maybe an Olympic gold, a world championship gold, become the greatest athlete ever. That's what I'm working towards.”
Scotland's Neil Fachie hits a career high with a win in the Men's Tandem B Sprint Track Cycling final alongside pilot Aaron Paul, Fachie's seventh Commonwealth gold:
"The adrenaline was immense, the crowd was phenomenal. I said to Aaron before we lined up that the story was already written, we just had to finish it. And we did. For my very last bike race, that's a dramatic way to finish. I'll happily tell that story for years to come... What a way to bow out. I'm quite happy to say farewell here. I love you, Scotland, and what a moment."
The celebrations of Northern Irish judoka Rachael Hawkes after claiming bronze in the Women's -70kg quickly went from the delirious to the delicious:
"I don't think I have ever screamed like that in my life. Right now I just want to see my mum and eat pizza."
Jemima Yeats-Brown's beloved sister Jenny, who died in 2022, was never far from the England judoka's thoughts during a Games campaign that culminated in her taking 70kg Women's bronze.
"She's in my head all day, all night, every day. These events are always a little bit sad because she should be here. In golden score, I just kept thinking, 'She battled cancer, you can battle this. Get to the end'. And that's what I did."
