bronze

Shaw is a world-class competitor in a sport where the rewards may not make her wealthy.

“Obviously there’s football, Formula One… but I can’t think of many more sports where it is a case of ‘you’ve hit the top level and now you’re financially settled’,” she said.

Shaw is given what is called an ‘Athlete Performance Award’ (APA), a financial grant from UK Sport and the National Lottery that contributes towards her living and training costs.

There are different grades of support, external that athletes receive, depending on their results and prospect of medal-winning performances.

Shaw told BBC Sport that it was “very common” for athletes in sports like judo to have another source of income.

“The money I get [APA] covers my living expenses, which is a blessing and not to be taken for granted,” she said.

“But, for example, the next competition I’ve paid for myself because it wasn’t funded by British Judo.

“Going to Peru [for the Grand Prix] has cost me quite a bit of money and then I’m not really getting that back from anywhere else.

“I’m also a normal person! Like, I want to save for a house.”

Athletes can also earn money through sponsorships, something Shaw says would be a “game-changer” for an athlete at the present stage of her career.

“It just means you can take every single opportunity… put it towards competitions that I don’t get funded.”

Shaw also decided to set up a GoFundMe page at the start of the year, which she sees as a way of helping to fund her dream of going to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Given Keith herself was a tad surprised she scooped up a medal here, her grandad’s take on the event ought to be a good one.

The 10,000m is her preference, but the longer distance final did not go to plan on Monday and she finished seventh.

The Inverness athlete said she was faced with the ‘can Megan win a medal?’ talk earlier this week, but with that weight of expectation lifted – combined with experience of the home crowd and “the help of two other Scots in the race” – she was freed from the shackles to soar to a classy and courageous run.

“If you look at Monday on paper, that was pretty disappointing,” the 24-year-old added.

“I don’t think you’d put me in the running for a 5km medal since the 10km is normally closer to being my strength, so that definitely helped, the removal of that pressure.

“I think I knew if I felt horrendous and dropped out or fell off the pace again it wouldn’t really matter so I may as well shoot my shot.”

And shoot she did. Biding her time in the middle of the congested pact, Keith made her move with four laps to go, weaving past early pacesetters from Kenya and Uganda.

She was afforded a bit of breathing space with two hurls around the track to go. But as expected, the exceptional Australian duo of Rose Davies – who made it a double gold at these Games with her 10km – and Jessica Hull, the 1500m Olympic silver medallist, entered another gear in the final lap.

While the cameras focused on the tremendous tussle between the pair in the matching yellow vests, the majority of the crowd had their eyes a wee bit further back, bawling at Keith on the final stretch.

She was home safe and sound. And swiftly searching for a saltire.

Once that was draped over her shoulders, and she’d caught up with fellow Scots Eloise Walker and Laura Muir, who finished 15th and 16th respectively, she was darting back around the track – the wrong way, this time – in search of her grandad.

He was eventually found for a quick hug, but a bigger debrief – and the declaration, surely, that this topped any other Scotstoun occasion – is still to be had.

After tears in Paris, tears again in Glasgow.

It leaves even the great Adam Ramsay-Peaty wondering how much of this is worth it.

“I work a lot harder than what it says on the scoreboard,” the Englishman said after taking 100m breaststroke bronze at the Commonwealth Games, his eyes and cheeks red with emotion.

“It hurts too much. I have got to approach training differently now because it hurts too much.”

Ramsay-Peaty has done it all in this sport.

Three Olympic gold medals. Eight world titles. The 14 fastest times in history.

But after taking a break from swimming amid a wave of mental health issues in 2023, he is still searching for that winning feeling again on the big stage.

He was pipped to Olympic gold in Paris two years ago. In Glasgow, despite coming into the final as the fastest qualifier, he had to settle for bronze.

He was beaten by Australia’s Sam Williamson but also Jersey’s history-maker Filip Nowacki, the 18-year-old he has taken under his wing.

Ramsay-Peaty was third at halfway and could not close the gap.

“It took a lot of courage to get back into the sport, so we should be happy with everything we get, but then that contradicts the athlete inside me and what I work for,” he said.

“I just think I deserve more. I know sport isn’t about what you deserve or even what you work for – it’s who gets it on the day.

“I just know I’m a better athlete than that. It’s very disappointing.”

Ramsay-Peaty has spoken about the difficult decisions that come with being an elite athlete. The time away from his son, whom he held in his arms after the Paris silver. The events at home he has to miss.

“They are not even sacrifices; they are choices,” he said.

“It’s like getting knocked out in the group stages in the World Cup for a very good team. You know you’re better and it hurts because you know you have to wait for a very long time for the next championships.

“This is probably – realistically – my last Commonwealth Games and I thought I’d trained for better. I could do better. I’ve been faster this season. That’s where the frustration is.”

Ramsay-Peaty has made no secret of the fact he is still competing in the quest for Olympic gold.

He considered retirement again after Paris, but committed to another four years when the 50m race was added to programme for Los Angeles 2028.

This 100m breaststroke is his event – the one in which he went unbeaten in eight years – but there may be a time when he has to let it go.

The 50m race – a dash down one length of the pool – would be less taxing on the body, and Ramsay-Peaty is due back in the pool for that event on Sunday morning.

“Is the 100 even viable any more? I don’t know,” he said.

“When it hurts like this, the 50 is probably my super strength with my power.

“With the Olympics, that’s probably going to be more realistic, but it’s too early to tell.

“I just feel like I couldn’t have given more this cycle. If I had given less, would it have even equalled more?”

Given the emotion, there are times you wonder how close Ramsay-Peaty is to walking away entirely.

He appeared to walk to the edge but always turned back, insisting the drive for LA remains.

“Of course,” he said.

“I know I’m a sprinter. I know I can do very well because I’ve done it. It doesn’t disappear overnight.

“It requires me to look at the formula and see how I can get to that speed again.”

Kylian Mbappe scores twice for France to hit World Cup record but England win 6-4 in third-place playoff final.

England beat France 6-4 in a chaotic World Cup third-place playoff as Kylian Mbappe became the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history.

Both teams had higher aspirations at the 2026 tournament but suffered painful semifinal exits – France were outplayed by Spain while England suffered a late collapse against Argentina.

Both coaches made multiple changes for Saturday’s match in the oppressive heat of Miami, with a host of stars on the bench at the start.

England boss Thomas Tuchel left out Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham from his starting lineup while Deschamps, stepping down after 14 years at the helm, omitted Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele.

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice put England ahead with a goal from distance in the third minute and Ezri Konsa headed home to make it 2-0.

Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise were a threat as France searched for a way back into the game, but they found England’s second-choice goalkeeper Dean Henderson in top form.

The game threatened to become embarrassing for France when Bukayo Saka made it 3-0 after a swift break.

And it was 4-0 in first-half stoppage time when Saka scored his second goal of the game, celebrated with a fist pump by Tuchel.

France coach Didier Deschamps told French TV channel M6 that the first-half display had been “catastrophic”, urging his men to show pride.

He made four changes, bringing on Dembele, Dayot Upamecano, Lucas Digne and Barcola and was rewarded almost instantly when Mbappe scored his ninth goal of the tournament to move clear of Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot standings.

The game had now totally changed complexion, and Barcola pulled another goal back, with Deschamps clenching his fist on the bench.

Mbappe then netted his second of the game to become the all-time leading World Cup goalscorer with 22 goals – slotting home from Olise’s pass.

That put him two ahead of Messi in the race to finish as top scorer at the 2026 tournament.

France squandered a number of chances to equalise, and England were handed a chance to extend their lead when Malo Gusto brought down Djed Spence in the penalty area.

Saka stepped up to the spot and converted to complete his hat-trick.

There was still time for Dembele to grab a fourth for France, but Bellingham then strode forward to score the 10th goal of the match with an individual effort.

In doing so, Bellingham became the first England player to score seven goals at a World Cup.

By finishing third, England secured their best result at a World Cup since winning the tournament in 1966, though they will carry bitter memories of their defeat by defending champions Argentina.

Deschamps led France to World Cup glory in 2018 and finished as runners-up four years ago.

Les Bleus were favourites to win the 2026 tournament after a sensational start but were well beaten 2-0 by Spain in the semifinals.

Three-time champions Argentina face European champions Spain in the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday.

The Benin Bronzes are a broad term used for the carved ivory, wooden works, metal sculptures and plaques looted by British troops during the Punitive Expedition in 1897.

Scholars estimate that more than 5,000 artefacts were stolen, some of which were gifted to Queen Victoria, others sold in auctions, held in private galleries or donated to museums across Europe and elsewhere.

The call to return the art, which began in the 1930s, intensified in the recent decade, inspired by growing pressure, repatriation activism and the relentless effort of the Benin Dialogue Group, a multilateral stakeholders’ group.

As momentum built at the peak of the homecoming of these arts, Igun Street unexpectedly found itself in the global spotlight. Diplomats, state officials, museum curators and researchers began arriving in numbers local artisans say they had never witnessed before.

This noon, Double Chief’s voice brims with pride as he points to a recently completed sculpture resting on a wooden bench. The bronze figure, a man in a suit and tie, had received its final polish only that morning after months of work.

Yet for many bronze casters, the attention has done little to solve underlying concerns.

“We are struggling to keep the industry alive,” says Oriakhi Osazee, who sits on a wooden stool at the entrance of a store in Igun. A sculptor whose mediums are clay, fibre, brass and bronze, Osazee has been in the craft for more than 35 years. He speaks with depth and conviction, drawing from vivid dates and past events to reinforce his ideas.

Efforts to recruit apprentices have stalled, he says. Young people, on whom the future of the craft depends, are increasingly leaving in search of what he calls “quick money” in other professions, cities and countries.

When their ancestors began, he recalls, their craft extended beyond bronze casting. There were, among the Iguns, men who had a gift in ivory carving. Long before the global ban on ivory trade was made official, that layer of art, without heirs and hope of continuity, had died.

For Agbonmwenre Alex, the subject of heirship within the craft is a matter of personal pain.

Alex, who was taking a tour of his workshop, began learning the craft at the age of eight under the guidance of his father. He started with errands and light tasks before progressing to kneading clay pottery. Over time, he learned every stage of the casting process, from preparing moulds to the final polishing of finished works.

Today, he is the only one of his father’s seven sons who remains in the profession. But uncertainty now hangs over the next generation.

“I would like my sons to take after me,” Alex says. “Unfortunately, I started exposing them to this craft so late. They literally see this work as outdated, archaic, and dying. The zeal, the love for the job, is dead.”

I would like my sons to take after me. They see this work as outdates, archaic, and dying. The zeal, the love for the job, is dead.

by AGNONMWENRE ALEX, BRONZE CRAFTSMAN

His first son chose to study law. His second is pursuing a degree in healthcare. Despite repeated efforts to pique their interest, including offering workshop space, raw materials and financial support to start a business of their own, neither accepted.

“The number of youths is declining drastically. It [the craft] is at risk of going into extinction. Apprentices are so scarce,” says Osazee. “We used to have a lot of apprentices in the past.”