SWIMMING hero Chad le Clos won the most medals by an individual athlete in Glasgow.

The South African bagged seven medals, including two gold. Five competitors won six medals, three of them swimmers and two rhythmic gymnasts, including Francesca Jones of Wales.

Jones was given the David Dixon award at the closing ceremony for her performance, contribution to her team and commitment to fair play.

Le Clos, by the way, is not the most decorated swimmer from a single Games, as previously reported.

The record is eight, and is shared by three others - Ralph Hutton of Canada (1966), and Australians Susie O'Neill (1998) and Emily Seebohm (2010).

These were the first Games since Edinburgh 1986 where Australia have not topped the medals table.

England finished atop the Glasgow standings, as they did 28 years ago. Australia and England have held the number one spot at every Games except one, at Edmonton 1978, which was dominated by hosts Canada.

The Commonwealth Games are considered a poor man's Olympics by many, but nine world records were posted in Glasgow.

There were four in swimming - three in para-events and one in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay.

And the power lifters managed five in three events (men's 59kg, women's 50kg and women's 86kg).

These were the first Games since Kuala Lumpur 1998 where South Africa's female swimmers failed to make the podium.

Their best hope, Karin Prinsloo, fell ill shortly before the event and under-performed in Glasgow.

In 1998 Charlene Wittstock, now Princess of Monaco, came the closest, ending fourth in the 50m freestyle.

She was lying third with half a stroke remaining, but gifted bronze to New Zealand's Toni Jeffs.

Just less than half the 71 Commonwealth nations in Glasgow actually won medals.

There were 261 gold medals amid a total of 824 gongs handed out (events like boxing, wrestling and judo offer two bronzes to losing semifinalists). Only 35 nations made the podium.

When Julius Kiplangat Yego won the men's javelin title at the weekend, he became the first Kenyan athlete in Games history to win gold in a non-running event.

South African Khotso Mokoena won gold in the men's triple jump on Saturday.

England's Joseph Joyce, 28, is the oldest man to win the Games super-heavyweight boxing title.

The model and post-graduate, considered a hot property, broke the record of countryman Audley Harrison, who was 26 when he won in 1998.

Vijender Vijender of India took the middleweight silver to win his third Games medal and join four other fighters as the most decorated Commonwealth boxers. Vijender won welterweight silver eight years ago when he was beaten by South Africa's Bongani Mwelase at Melbourne 2006.

That is still South Africa's only boxing gold since readmission.

Nigeria cleaned up in the power lifting again, taking all four gold medals on offer in Glasgow. The sport was introduced at Delhi 2010 and they bagged all the gold there too.

There are only a few sports which have been won by a single nation, such as rugby sevens, until the Blitzboks downed New Zealand this year.

Another was cricket, which was staged only once, in 1998, and the reigning champions are South Africa.