HOPES PLACED ON GLASGOW GOLDS
When the home nations' boxing stars converge on Glasgow 2014 this month they will do so in the hope rather than the expectation that gold medal success will provide their first step on the path to fame.
Shorn of its traditional fistic powerhouses such as Russia and Cuba, the Commonwealth Games boxing tournament has always been regarded as a rather low-key opportunity for emerging talents to highlight their credentials.
But that is not to say the competition has lost some of the star quality of its 84-year history as a core sport within the Commonwealth Games and its precursor, the British Empire Games.
Home nation fans hoping for the emergence of a new star will hark back to the glory days of Dick McTaggart, who won lightweight gold in Cardiff in 1958 two year after claiming the Olympic title in Melbourne.
A second medal at both the Commonwealths and Olympics would follow for McTaggart, generally regarded as Scotland's greatest amateur boxer, who resolutely resisted the temptation to turn professional.
The 1958 tournament in Sophia Gardens also signalled the emergence of a teenage Welshman called Howard Winstone, who delighted the home supporters by claiming gold in the bantamweight division.
One year later Winstone made his professional debut - and 10 years after his Commonwealth triumph he would finally be crowned professional world champion at the fourth time of asking.
Another future world champion, John Conteh, took Commonwealth Games gold at middleweight in 1970, and four years later future title challenger Pat Cowdell was crowned bantamweight champion.
The 1978 Games in Edmonton arguably provided the competition's high point, crowning the teenage Irishman Barry McGuigan, who beat Tumat Sugolik of Papua New Guinea in the bantamweight final and began an extraordinary odyssey which would lift him to the pinnacle of his sport.
That same year at featherweight, Ghana's Azumah Nelson - widely regarded as the greatest of all African boxers - beat Zambia's John Sichula to win the gold medal at featherweright.
And at welterweight Mike McCallum, who would go on to become a multi-weight world champion and be christened 'The Body-snatcher' for his ferocious body-punching, also reached the top of the podium.
Lennox Lewis - then representing Canada - made a breakthrough by claiming the super-heavyweight gold medal in 1986, while future world champions Wayne McCullough and Richie Woodhall triumphed in 1990.
In more recent years, Audley Harrison and Darren Barker are among those who have built on Commonwealth Games gold medals to go on to greater things.
But there are plenty of others for whom the Commonwealth Games will remain their pinnacle. The likes of Jamie Arthur and David Dolan, who won gold alongside Barker in Manchester in 2002, were never able to lift their professional careers beyond domestic level.
And the jury is still out on the home nation medallists from the 2010 Games in Delhi.
Northern Ireland flyweight Paddy Barnes and Welshman Sean McGoldrick will return to defend their titles in Glasgow.
The remaining five home nation gold medallists from India - Thomas Stalker, Simon Vallily, Callum Johnson, Eamonn O'Kane and Patrick Gallagher - have moved on to build respectable if low-key professional careers.
Only time will tell if any superstar fighters of the future will look back on Glasgow 2014 as the competition in which their big-time dreams got lift-off.
