Published: 31 July, 2014

I HAPPEN to be a Glaswegian living in Islington. 

However, that is irrelevant to the comment I have to make about Richard Osley’s Summer Diary (Scots have gone along with Glasgow games charade, July 24). 

While you may have intended your article to be humorous, I take issue with various aspects of it. 

For a start the article fails to take on board the enormous amount of time and dedication the athletes attending the games have put into preparing for them. 

You just had to look at Ross Murdoch’s face when he won gold to see his joy and pride to be involved. 

It didn’t matter that he wasn’t from America or one of the other countries who you consider “half-decent at summer sports”. 

His win was hard-earnt and moving. This is the human side of the games; the bit that actually compels people to watch. 

To suggest that the Commonwealth Games are simply the poor cousin of the 2012 London Olympics is also wrong.

It is simply coincidence that the UK was lucky enough to win the opportunity to host two hugely prestigious events in such quick succession. 

Had the Olympics not been hosted in the UK so recently, or had the Commonwealth Games been hosted in London rather than Glasgow, perhaps your attitude to the games may be somewhat less blasé and negative. 

Seeing young athletes come together from across the Commonwealth to show the world the fruits of their labour is inspiring. 

Even if that inspiration may quickly be lost after the games end. I only hope that, maybe, the bit of the games you manage to see before you catch that last tube home will leave you to set aside some of your cynicism. 

REBECCA ROWELL, N1