England and Scotland shared the ultimate honours during an electric high-stakes morning at the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games which delivered the first-ever indoor bowls and para bowls medals in Games history.
Host nation Scotland claimed gold in the para mixed pairs, while there was double gold for England in both the men’s singles and women’s pairs.
The Games is marking a revolutionary chapter for the sport achieving several historic milestones that fundamentally reshape the sport’s global presentation.
As one of the core anchor sports of a streamlined 10-sport programme, the event modernises the traditional game into a fast-paced highly accessible spectator experience which was the curtain-raiser event over the opening ceremony after ‘unprecedented demand’ and a record entry of nations saw an historic Day 0 session added.
Let’s take a look at how the medals were won in the order they were played:
PARA MIXED PAIRS B2/B3
The very first bowls medal of the Games sent the home crowd into absolute raptures as Scotland defeated England to clinch gold in the para mixed pairs B2/B3 final.
For the Scots, Robert Barr and director Sarah-Jane Ewing made history becoming back-to-back gold medal winners.
Joined by Games debutant Mary Stevenson and director James Aiken, they gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about when they returned a 2-7, 6-3, 1-0 tiebreak win over England in the final.
England’s Ron Homer BEM and director Sue Davies and World Cup VI women’s pairs winners Sally-Ann Lewis-Wall and Elizabeth Shipley being silver medallists.
Wales’ Julie Thomas won her third Games medal from consecutive Games.
A bronze winner in Delhi in 2010 and silver victor at Birmingham 2022, together with director Jamie Jones, and Steffan James, making his maiden Games appearance, and director John Wilson, snatched bronze on a tiebreak (4-7, 6-2, 1-0) denying New Zealand’s Sonya Woodrow and director Kimberley Carraker and Kerrin Wheeler and his director, also his dad, Colin Wheeler the Kiwi’s first ever para mixed pairs medal.
The coin toss was performed by Hazel Sacharowitz, World Bowls head classifier for visually impaired bowlers.
Markers for the gold medal match were Lorraine Dowson and Steve Sargent and for the bronze match Tony Hatch and Martyn Jenkins.
WOMEN’S PAIRS
England’s Amy Pharaoh and Sian Honnor won gold in the women’s pairs.
Between them, the duo now boast 10 Games medals after they beat Malaysia’s Aleena Ahmad Nawawi and Syafiqa Haidar Afif Abdul Rahman 1.5-0.5 (5-4, 5-5) in the final.
Pharaoh, a gold medal winner in the pairs in Delhi 2010 with Ellen Falkner MBE – one of the legends of the sport who has a rink at the Glasgow Games named in her honour – also took bronze in Delhi 2010 and took home silver from Birmingham four years ago when she and Sophie Tolchard agonisingly lost out to Australia on an extra end.
Honnor, Team England’s flag bearer at the Games opening ceremony, is now a back-to-back gold medal winner having taken the top spot in the triples in 2022. She also has triples gold from Glasgow 2014 and two bronze from 2010 Delhi and 2018 Gold Coast.
For Team Malaysia, Rahman was competing while five months pregnant and her achievement is a reminder that strength and determination come in many forms.
Northern Ireland’s Chloe Wilson and Shauna O’Neill were 2-0 (4-2, 5-4) winners over Wales’ Lauren Gowen and Amy Williams in the bronze medal match becoming the third medal winners in the event for their country and bridging a 12-year gap of previous success. Incidentally, their current team manager Barbara Cameron was on the podium when the Games was held in Glasgow with Mandy Cunningham.
The coin toss was performed by World Bowls Hall of Famer Margaret Letham.
Gold medal match markers were Bob Penny and Laureen Smith and for the bronze match, Sue Mates and David Rice.
MEN’S SINGLES
England’s Sam Tolchard was crowned men’s singles champion.
He secured his career-first Commonwealth gold medal after making his first Games appearance 16 years ago.
He is the first Englishman to win the title since the legendary David Bryant CBE in 1978 when he indeed won it for the fourth consecutive time.
Current World Cup men’s singles champion and a 2022 World Champion of champions victor, Tolchard, appearing at his fifth Games, now has a full set of gold, silver and bronze Commonwealth medals to his name.
This is his fifth medal having previously won silver in the pairs and bronze in the fours in Birmingham 2022, bronze in the pairs the last time the Games was staged in Glasgow 12 years ago and bronze in the fours in 2018 Gold Coast.
In the final – played on the David Bryant rink – Tolchard was a 2-0 (8-0, 8-6) over former World Bowls Series No 1 Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple who was bidding to Malaysia’ s first men’s Commonwealth medal winner.
Gary Kelly, of Northern Ireland, won his third Games medal taking bronze.
Bronze medallist in Delhi 2010 and silver at Birmingham 2022, he returned a 1.5-0.5 (4-4 9-2) scorecard against defending champion Australia’s Aaron Wilson in a rematch of the 2022 gold medal match.
Wilson, whose run of 21 consecutive men’s singles wins over a 3,027-day reign after clinching gold in the previous two Games, saw his tenure come to a dramatic end when he was beaten on a tiebreak in the semi-final by Dzulkeple.
The coin toss was performed by World Bowls Hall of Fame members Willie Wood MBE and Darren Burnett.
For the first time in Commonwealth bowls history, a lady marked the men’s final and that duty was fulfilled by Sarah Hope with Huw Jones, while Jamie Campbell and Michael Johnson marked the bronze match.
Both the men’s singles and women’s pairs are platinum events on the World Bowls Series ranking list.
Play also began today in the men’s pairs, women’s singles and para men’s and women’s pairs.
For full schedule and results, see: 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/
Recap on how the finals unfolded from Day Four’s action: https://www.worldbowls.com/commonwealth-games-day-4-wrap/
