{"id":832399,"date":"2026-07-30T01:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832399\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T01:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:13:20","slug":"commonwealth-games-quick-hits-swimmer-spurns-love-island-offer-idi-amins-grandson-makes-vow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832399\/","title":{"rendered":"Commonwealth Games quick hits: Swimmer spurns Love Island offer, Idi Amin’s grandson makes vow"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Scottish swimmer rejects an approach to appear on a dating reality show, Idi Amin’s grandson reveals his royal plans and an Australian weightlifter adds to his family’s medal history.<\/p>\n

More on the Commonwealth Games:<\/p>\n

Here are the quick hits from day six of the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

1. Swimmer gives up Love Island opportunity\"Katie<\/p>\n

Scottish swimmer Katie Shanahan turned down an offer to appear on Love Island. (Getty Images: \u00a0Ian MacNicol)<\/p>\n

Last year, Scottish swimmer Katie Shanahan had a choice to make.<\/p>\n

Should she keep training with an eye on earning Commonwealth Games selection?<\/p>\n

Or appear on reality dating program Love Island?<\/p>\n

Shanahan spurned the chance to enter the villa and chose to focus on her swimming career and the decision is paying off.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old won silver in the women’s 200m backstroke at the Glasgow Games.<\/p>\n

“I’m the biggest Love Island fan ever. I’ve watched every season”, Shanahan told BBC Scotland News.<\/p>\n

“Last year the producers asked me and [English swimmer] Abbie Wood if we would be interested in doing it.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t go on, though, because [I was] focusing on the swimming, but who knows in the future?<\/p>\n

“I was a bit tempted but the swimming had to come first.”<\/p>\n

2. Idi Amin’s grandson’s vow\"Aziz<\/p>\n

Aziz Abdul is disqualified during his bout on day six. (Reuters: Matthew Childs)<\/p>\n

Carrying a family legacy into a sporting occasion can be a good thing.<\/p>\n

In this instance, we’re not sure it is.<\/p>\n

Ugandan 90+kg boxer Aziz Abdul is the grandson of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.<\/p>\n

Amin took charge in a coup in 1971 and ruled the country for eight years, during which an estimated half a million people were killed and the country’s entire Asian population was expelled.<\/p>\n

The Butcher of Uganda, as he was also known, had a bizarre fascination with Scotland, which was the subject of a film starring Forest Whitaker as Amin, The Last King Of Scotland.<\/p>\n

It appears his grandson shares a similar love for the nation.<\/p>\n

“In everything we do, God knows tomorrow,” he told BBC Sport Scotland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s God’s plan. I might be the new king of Scotland. It’s possible.<\/p>\n

“When I arrived, I put up the flag, ’cause I like Scotland so much.”<\/p>\n

He fought England’s Damar Thomas on day six in Glasgow but was disqualified for a headbutt during their quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

3. Ollie’s fall\"Ollie<\/p>\n

Oliver Hoare falls during the mile heats. (Getty Images: Michael Steele)<\/p>\n

Ollie Hoare suffered a major scare in the mile heats, falling half way through the race after appearing to be tripped.<\/p>\n

“There was no-one in front of me and I fell down,” Hoare later said in the mix zone.<\/p>\n

“Tough to have that happen because obviously I wanted to compete on my own merit, and having something like that happen sucks.<\/p>\n

“I got up and kept competing because that’s what we do.”<\/p>\n

The Australian team immediately appealed to get Hoare into Saturday’s final and were successful, meaning the worst of things for Hoare was a bit of track rash.<\/p>\n

“I’m a bit scabbed up and feeling crap about it but we move on,” he said.<\/p>\n

He joins fellow Australians Adam Spencer and Cam Myer in the final.<\/p>\n

4. Like father, like son\"Ollie<\/p>\n

Oliver Saxton secured Commonwealth Games bronze in Scotland 40 years after his dad did the same. (Getty Images: Francois Nel)<\/p>\n

At the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, English weightlifter Andrew Saxton claimed his first Commonwealth Games medal, a bronze in the 100kg sub-heavyweight division.<\/p>\n

Forty years later, his son, Australian Ollie Saxton, achieved the same result in the 94kg division in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Saxton senior went on to win three golds in Auckland \u2014 back then you got a medal for the snatch, clean and jerk, and overall \u2014 something that would only earn him one medal today.<\/p>\n

He represented England in those two Games, but four years after that, in Victoria, British Colombia, he won a silver for Australia.<\/p>\n

Something for Ollie to aspire to in four years in Ahmedabad.<\/p>\n

5. Bobsleigh ‘bootcamp’ for Welsh shot putter<\/p>\n

Keeping busy during the athletics off-season is not a problem for Adele Nicoll.<\/p>\n

The Welsh shot putter has one of the more unusual sporting crossover stories, mixing shot putt with bobsleigh.<\/p>\n

And she’s pretty good at both. In February she was flying down on the Pista Olimpica Eugenio Monti<\/a> in Cortina d’Ampezzo at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where she finished 18th in the monobob and 15th in the two-woman.<\/p>\n

She thinks the rigours and unglamorous life of a bobsled athlete places her in good stead for athletics.<\/p>\n

“In athletics, we just get our kit bag and we turn up to the track, but with the bobsleigh we’re driving the vans around the world,” Nicoll told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“You race, you pack up all the equipment and you drive to the next location, which could be a 24-hour journey.<\/p>\n

\"Adele<\/p>\n

Adele Nicoll competed in Milano-Cortina in the monobob and two-woman bobsleigh events. (Getty Images: Al Bello)<\/p>\n

“It’s just you and your teammates. You’re doing all the servicing of the sleds, you’re doing everything.<\/p>\n

“Bobsleigh is basically a boot camp that makes you the most resilient, hard-working, grafting athlete.<\/p>\n

“I’ve come back into athletics now with that discipline and that’s what I think has made me a much better track and field athlete.”<\/p>\n

Nicoll finished fifth in the women’s shot put today, AEST, with a best effort of 16.33m.<\/p>\n

Nicoll is not the only crossover athlete to combine bobsledding with the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

Four-time medallist in track cycling from Birmingham 2022 and 2021 Tokyo Olympic sprint champion, Canadian Kelsey Mitchell, is also partial to bobsledding and finished 13th in the two-woman event in Cortina \u2014 and even acted as some inspiration for Aussie track cyclist Kristina Clonan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Scottish swimmer rejects an approach to appear on a dating reality show, Idi Amin’s grandson reveals his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[263937,404852,64,63,404853,404851,16742,404850,396495,390483,396259,85],"class_list":["post-832399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-commonwealth-games","tag-andrew-saxton","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-aziz-abdul","tag-comm-games-day-six-quick-hits","tag-commonwealth-games","tag-commonwealth-games-day-six","tag-commonwealth-games-quick-hits","tag-glasgow-commonwealth-games","tag-katie-shanahan","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}