Golden glory for Adcocks at Glasgow

England's Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock celebrate their win in the Mix Doubles Gold medal match. Picture by: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire.

Adcock has been the leader of the English badminton squad at Glasgow 2014, and rather fittingly, brought their participation at the Games to a close with mixed doubles victory with wife Gabby.

It was far from easy though and, with teammates Heather Olver and Chris Langridge their opponents in the mixed doubles final, they faced off against a pair they regularly meet in training.

The Adcocks started fast though and whisked their way to a 21-9, 21-12 to seal gold – that coming after team silver and the heartache of a bronze medal match defeat for Chris in the men’s doubles.

He had lost an all-English bronze medal match with Andrew Ellis to Southwell’s Peter Mills and Langridge, but with gold finally secured, he expressed his desire to be reunited with pet dog Bowser.

“It has really been hard to switch off these last couple of weeks, you are surrounded by it all in the village, but we have managed to keep our discipline,” said Adcock.

“We have managed to keep a good balance. Part of it is separating one day and one game at a time and I think you could see on court it didn’t affect us.

“We are looking forward to getting home for a few days. The first thing we actually want to do is go and pick up our dog, as silly as it sounds.

“We have missed him like crazy, it sounds a bit silly, but we will take our time, have a couple of days really enjoying what we’ve achieved.”

The Adcocks didn’t drop a single set on the way to the Commonwealth Games mixed doubles title – more than living up to their No.1 seeding which added pressure to their charge.

Chris was also a worried spectator when Gabby’s women’s successful doubles bronze medal match with Lauren Smith went late into Saturday night – but she had enough left for the mixed.

“I was watching Gabby game thinking I hope she’s got some legs left,” he added. “It is testament to us and how we have been so solid, especially in the individual event.

“We have built our way through but we didn’t drop a set and we were in control. It adds a bit of pressure but it makes you feel better when you come out on top.”

Commonwealth Games England (CGE) leads and manages the participation of the Team England at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games.

They work with sports, sponsors and Sport England to support the development of athletes and their sports, and to achieve success at Games-time.