It is rather a shock coming from Kylie and Lulu, not to mention all the other fun but rather meaningless components of last night's Closing Ceremony, to the harrowing commemorations today to mark 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War.

Like all other walks of life, the sports world was affected by the "Great War" and for anyone interested in how exactly, I would point them in the direction of my colleague Philip Barker's excellent piece on insidethegames: A tribute to the Olympic Movement's fallen.

When British and German troops joined together for a spontaneous football match on No Man's Land on Christmas Day, 1914, sport also provided one of the most enduring memories of the four-year conflict. This match was possibly something of a myth - although multiple accounts insist it did occur - yet it still illustrates the wider role of sport to spread unity and harmony, and does so in a better way than probably any other case in history.

The "Friendly Games" which concluded last night in Glasgow seeks to do a similar thing. And although the name "Friendly Games" is beginning to resemble one of those irritating buzz-words, like "legacy" or "gender-equality", the Commonwealth Games does achieve this in a more effortless and natural way than many other competitions.

Sport united conflicting people in World War One as it still unites people today, including at Glasgow 2014 ©Hulton Archive via Getty Images



When asked to provide her enduring memory of Glasgow 2014, insidethegames managing director Sarah Bowron spoke about how the Games are like a "great big family wedding reception" with people joining together to celebrate shared values and experiences.

One of the great components of this is the opportunity for athletes from small countries to compete on the same stage as more established nations, and in the case of Kiribati weightlifter, David Katoatau, to defeat them to deem the Pacific Island's first ever Commonwealth Games medal a golden one.

In terms of the sport itself, I feel with hindsight that the first week of the Games largely passed me by. Yes, I enjoyed the likes of Alistair Brownlee illustrating his enduring brilliance with two triathlon titles, South Africa stunning New Zealand in the rugby sevens, and the likes of Euan Burton, Hannah Miley and Daniel Keatings lighting up the home crowd to win for Scotland.

Hannah Miley provided one of many great moments for the host nation in Glasgow
©Getty Images


But, maybe because we were too busy going from events in a constant rush to keep our live blog up to date, aptly described as a "monster that always needs feeding" by one of my colleagues, I wasn't really absorbing all of the drama as much as I would have if I had been watching it on the couch at home.

So in the last few days I made a conscious decision to do exactly that and was duly rewarded with a trio of equally exciting sporting experiences over the last three days of action.

The first came at Hampden Park in the crème de la crème of any athletics competition that is the men's 10,000m. In a 25-lap affair that was lacking the world and Olympic champion Mo Farah, which arguably made it that bit more exciting as a contest, half a dozen runners were still in contention with a lap to go. It was Cameron Levins of Canada, a training partner of Farah, who took up the running with 200 metres to go. He surged on the bend and for a moment seemed to be opening up daylight before Josphat Bett of Kenya edged ahead on the outside.

Moses Kipsiro edged a thrilling 10,000m race for the only Ugandan gold of the Games
©Getty Images



But then, out of nowhere, came Moses Kipsiro, who, four years after winning double gold at Delhi 2010, had been a lowly eighth in the 5,000m final five days earlier and had considered not even starting the longer affair. Yet, rather like his biblical namesake when he parted the Red Sea, the Ugandan surged clear to win a spectacular contest by mere inches.