Provost Margaret Cooper hosted the event at Hamilton Town House, with the young athletes joined by their coaches and families.

Athletes from all three sports the team were competing in – girls’ football, athletics and swimming – reached the finals of their events at the Games, which were held in Coventry this year.

Provost Cooper said: “Huge congratulations to all the young athletes competing – they put in some fantastic performances and were a credit to South Lanarkshire.

“You could tell their parents and families were all so proud of them – and rightly so.

“The Games are not just about the competitive nature of sport of course, with everyone from Team South Lanarkshire having experiences and making memories that will last them a lifetime.

“Huge credit also has to go to the coaches and everyone who put in so much effort behind the scenes. An event of this scale is not easy to plan and organise, but they managed to do so flawlessly.

“The 2022 International Children's Games has been a huge success story for South Lanarkshire.”

The girls’ football team took home the gold medal following an amazing performance – not only did they win all their group games, their semi-final and final, they also didn’t concede a goal throughout the whole tournament.

The team of four athletes also came back with one gold from the boys 1500m (Angus Wilkinson) and one silver from the girls 100m (Tehillah Chiomaah Ikechukwu Okonkwo).

Emma Clark and Owen Murphy recorded personal best times, only narrowly missing out on medals, both coming fourth in their individual races.  The team were also unlucky not to medal in the mixed relay, finishing fourth. 

Every member of the swimming team also reached the final of the event, with some of them also recording personal bests on the way.

All the athletes in attendance at the civic reception were awarded a certificate of participation to honour their achievements as part of Team South Lanarkshire. The coaches were also presented with a civic gift.