Friday saw the start of the para bowls competitions at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games – the joint largest para bowls programme ever offered at a Games.

Taking centre stage at the SEC Centre was the para mixed pairs B2-B3 which features defending champion Robert Barr and director Sarah-Jane Ewing, silver medallist from Birmingham 2022 Julie Thomas, of Wales, and Australia’s Gold Coast 2018 gold medallist Jake Fehlberg who returns for his third Commonwealth Games campaign who is the only para bowler in history to have won gold at both the Commonwealth Games and World Bowls Championships.

But after two rounds, it is Wales’ Julie Thomas and director Jamie Jones and Steffan James and director John Wilson who hold the bragging rights with two wins out of two following victories over Australia and England.

Sectional play also continued in the men’s singles and women’s pairs after an unprecedented entry forced the event to start a day earlier than initially scheduled.

In the men’s singles, seven athletes remain unbeaten as the Games heads into day three – back-to-back defending champion Aaron Wilson, of Australia, and silver medallist in Birmingham 2022 Gary Kelly, of Northern Ireland head Sections A and B respectively, the latter group also seeing South Africa’s Wayne Rittmuller unbeaten. Scotland’s Jason Banks and Fiji’s Rajnesh Prasad have two wins from two in Section C, while Malaysia’s Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple and India’s Putul Sonowal hold that achievement in Section D.

In the women’s pairs, the day’s action included the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey chalking up two upsets.

Making their Games debut, Jersey’s Sara Douglas and Fiona Archibald beat home favourites, Scotland’s Beth Riva and Caroline Brown, 3-2, 0-10, 1-0, while Guernsey’s Rose Ogier and World Bowls Indoor Championship women’s singles champion Alison Merrien MBE took the scalp of Australia’s Dawn Hayman and Kelsey Cottrell 10-1, 5-2. Riva and Hayman are also appearing in their maiden Games, while Merrien is bridging a 16-year gap of Commonwealth selections. Cottrell, making her fourth Commonwealth Games appearance, already holding a complete Commonwealth Games medal collection, having won gold in the women’s fours on the Gold Coast, silver in the triples in Glasgow and bronze in the singles in Delhi.

But it’s Northern Ireland (Chloe Wilson and Shauna O’Neill), the aforementioned Guernsey duo, India (Pinki Singh and Rupa Rani Tirkey), England (Amy Pharoah and Sian Honnor), Wales (Lauren Gowen and Amy Williams), New Zealand (Selina Goddard and Katelyn Inch) and Malaysia (Aleena Ahmad Nawawi and Syafiqa Haidar Afif Abdul Rahman) who have returned winning scorecards from all their matches over the four sections.

Northern Ireland, India and Malaysia are the countries with 100 per cent records intact across both open disciplines.

The full schedule and results are available here: https://www.glasgow2026.com/schedule/day-by-day?code=LBO&startDate=2026-07-24

To view the full photo gallery, see: https://worldbowls.pixieset.com/2026commonwealthgames/