We Are Red And We Salute Those Who Went Before. . . And Did Wales Proud

After Wales turned red to celebrate Team Wales heading Down Under to Australia to battle for medals on the Gold Coast, Dai Sport thought it would be a good time to reflect on the brave men and women who blazed the trail at the early editions of the British Empire Games.

Long before Friday’s #WeAreRed campaign, there were a number of Welsh sportsmen who won medals at the inaugural event in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930, but not wearing the red of their native country.

There was no Welsh athletics team, but Reg Thomas was included in the ‘British’ team selected by the AAA, the then governing body of the sport in Wales.

Pembroke-born Reg came up trumps in the middle distance by winning gold in the mile and silver in the 800 metres. Huw ‘Jumbo’ Edwards, son of a Welsh-speaking Canon, was in the English boats that struck gold in the eights and fours. Howard Ford, born in Hawarden, struck silver in the pole vault, while Albert Love, from Grangetown, won a bronze in boxing.

Reg Thomas was the first Welsh competitor to win a Commonwealth Games medal.

But the honour of winning Wales’ first medals at the Games fell to a teenage swimmer from Cardiff who learned to swim in Roath Park Lake.

Valerie Davies had won her first Welsh titles at 12, competed for Great Britain at the European Championships at 15, and three years later won two silvers and a bronze in Hamilton.

Team Wales’ first gold medal was won in the boxing ring by Barry’s Denis Reardon. He was an apprentice at Curran’s engineer works in Cardiff and later went on to become a publican.

He made Welsh sporting history at Rushcutters Bay Stadium in Sydney on Thursday, 10 February, 1938, by becoming the first person in a Welsh vest to win a gold medal at what was then the British Empire Games.

Reardon found himself fighting the Swansea-born, ABA Middleweight champion of 1937, and the clear favourite, Maurice Dennis in the final.

The Welshman upset the odds and wrote his name into history. A day later, Cardiff University graduate Jim Alford won the mile race at Sydney Cricket Ground.

Who will follow in their golden footsteps in Australia this year?