Take the number of different countries on the podium, divide by the total number of medals awarded, and weightlifting pips boxing by one percentage point (- 36 per cent to 35 per cent. Compare that to gymnastics, diving, and swimming, for example, and it seems that some sports are redolent of the old Empire Games while others - weightlifting chief among them - is very much a sport of the modern Commonwealth.

It is a very modern sport all round, with loud music blaring throughout the action - except when the lifts are made, of course - and spectators urged to join in the party atmosphere. It is a very entertaining spectacle.

Weightlifting proved popular with everyone who saw it at Glasgow 2014 ©Getty Images

Flags of all the competing nations adorned the venues for every sport, and those at the Clyde Auditorium were arguably the hardest to identify. Alongside England, Scotland, Australia, India and Canada were Niue, Nauru, Kiribati, Rwanda and the Solomon Islands. The breadth of the Commonwealth is covered, and many of the smaller nations and territories won medals.

You might think that watching weightlifters from Nauru and Kiribati battling it out, often with no contenders from the British or "old Empire" countries, might test the attention of the audience, especially with so many youngsters in the arena. You would be wrong. The crowd loved it, and it was easy to see why.

Weightlifting has a number of advantages over other sports. It is dramatic, spectacular, and can be -as it was in Glasgow - brilliantly presented by people who know how to put on a show. It lasts about two hours, it is fairly easy to follow, and most important of all there are medal ceremonies every day. While some sports wade through day after day of elimination matches before a grand finale, weightlifting has medals on offer all the way through.

"I was only there for about an hour and I absolutely loved it," said the press manager of one of the other sports at the SECC, the venue that hosted seven sports in Glasgow. I have never heard of a single person who, after watching weightlifting for the first time, was not very impressed. A "first-timer" friend of mine who works in horse racing came along with his partner one morning and, on his way out, bought tickets for the following day too.

Among those who were blown away by the experience in Glasgow were two of the people who played key roles in presenting the sport. Richard Mason, a Canadian radio announcer who married a weightlifter and became a top-level official, was employed as an announcer for the first time. He did such a good job in engaging the crowd and encouraging them to cheer every lift that he was interviewed by The Scotsman newspaper.

"It was a sporting spectacle, one that exceeded all my expectations," Mason said. "The sounds, the lights, the crowd engagement - it was phenomenal. A friend of mine who is a field hockey official came along and he just gushed about it. He was jealous of the show."

Zoe Smith's celebration at Glasgow 2014 after her victory in the 58 kilogram category made the English lifter front page news in Britain ©Getty Images

That show was put on by Greatbigevents, an Australian company who travel the world to give audiences a memorable experience in sport and entertainment. Ian Deeth was their man who interviewed people in the crowd and generally kept them happy during intervals and build-ups. He had never seen weightlifting before.

"It was absolutely incredible," he said. "A sport where athletes push their bodies to the limit, showcasing pure strength, but with a strong tactical element too. If it's presented well it's ideal for all the family. I loved it." His enthusiasm showed.

Among the athletes Deeth interviewed in the spectator seats was Dave Morgan, the Wales lifter who holds the all-sport record of winning gold at five different Commonwealth Games. Then there was Marcus Stephen, the Nauruan who, after winning multiple gold and silver in the 1990s, became President of his country. The Australian team featured a blind lifter who was led on to the stage, and a vicar's wife.

Zoe Smith's somersault on stage was spectacular, and she made the front page of The Sunday Times. The biggest character was David Katoatau, flag-bearer for Kiribati and their first ever medallist when he won the 105kg gold. He danced his way off stage and said there would be a two-week party back home.

Brian Oliver with David Katoatau after he had won Kiribati's first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medal with victory in the 105 kilogram category ©Facebook

The sport is full of great characters, but it has its problems. One of them is letting the public know before the Games, rather than during them, that they should come and watch. There were plenty of big features on weightlifting in the British papers - John Goodbody, who probably knows more about the sport than any other mainstream writer, in The Sunday Times, Jonathan Liew in The Daily Telegraph, Andy Bull in The Guardian - and plentiful coverage in India and Australia, too. But the stars of the sport remain largely unknown, and gaining positive publicity is not one of weightlifting's strong points.

Negative stories are commonplace. There was the positive drugs test - and there are still far too many, with weightlifting running at about the same level of positives as cycling and boxing. There was an Australian who assaulted a Welshman in the Athletes' Village, and a Papua New Guinea lifter who was arrested for sexual misconduct, although he was subsequently cleared. Not the sort of stories weightlifting would want.

The International Weightlifting Federation - who were delighted with the way the sport was managed by Moira Lassen, of Canada, in Glasgow - would far rather tell the world about their stars. The endless drugs scandals of the 1970s and 1980s make their task difficult, even now. When the World Championships are staged in in Kazakhstan in November the remarkable Ilya Ilyin, the host nation's world record holder and double Olympic champion, deserves global publicity. But he is unlikely to get it.

Papua New Guinea's Dika Toua was upgraded to the gold medal in the 53 kilogram category after Nigerian winner Chika Amalaha failed a drugs test ©AFP/Getty Images

Amalaha's disqualification in Glasgow meant that Dika Toua of Papua New Guinea took the 53kg gold. She was the first woman ever to lift a barbell when women's weightlifting was introduced to the Olympic programme at Sydney 2000, and has been trying for Commonwealth gold for years.

Last Saturday (August 2) at the Athletes' Village, Toua was presented with her gold medal in front of all her team-mates, with a Scottish piper on hand and an appreciative crowd  to cheer her. On the same day it was announced that another Commonwealth athlete had tested positive: the 400 metres runner Amantle Montsho, from Botswana. Nobody suggested the future of athletics as a core sport in the Commonwealth Games was thrown into doubt.

Brian Oliver, author of '"The Commonwealth Games: Extraordinary Stories Behind the Medals", and a former sports editor of The Observer, was weightlifting media manager at London 2012 and Glasgow 2014