There may not have been any medals, but there were smiles aplenty at the airport yesterday when Bermuda?s Commonwealth Games team returned from Melbourne.

Family and friends were on hand to welcome back some of the Island?s premier athletes, most of whom emerged from the arrivals hall looking surprisingly chipper after a punishing journey back from Down Under which took the best part of two days.

The squad that touched down on local soil just before noon however was far from complete, with several high-profile competitors such as 1500 metre runner Ashley Couper, world youth long jump champion Arantxa King and cyclist Tyler Butterfield already having made their way back to their homes abroad.

Sports Minister Dale Butler accompanied the team throughout the Commonwealth odyssey and said yesterday that he was enormously proud of their achievements ? even without any metal around their necks.

?The performances across the board really were outstanding,? he said.

?There were quite a number of personal bests recorded while a high number of our athletes qualified for their respective finals which was good to see as well. I tried to get around to see and support as many of the athletes as I could and that would often mean about three or four events every evening.

?The Games itself was absolutely first class in terms of organisation and everything else. The shooters had to travel about two hours to get to their venue but apart from that, everything was very close to the Athletes Village and it was very easy to get around.

?Australia is a sports-mad country and it was quite an interesting experience out there having to leaf through about ten or more pages of sport in every newspaper before you even got to the overseas section! The whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable and I congratulate all the athletes who took part.?

Talented young high jumper Latroya Darrell, meanwhile, said she had loved every minute of the competition, though it had taken her a while to get used to competing in front of 81,000 people at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.

?I had a great time,? said the 18-year old, who narrowly failed to clear a jump of 1.83 metres in the high jump final.

?This was my first major competition and it was a completely different feeling in front of all those people. I think the largest crowd I?d ever competed in front of was about 1,000, so this was obviously something very new to me ? though I tried to block them out and focus on what I had to do.

?I was a little disappointed not to record a personal best (currently 1.79 metres) but I learnt a lot down there and am looking forward to Carifta coming up.?

Gymnast Kaisey Griffith, who along with Caitlin Mello became the first ever Bermudians to compete in the individual finals of their sport at the Commonwealths, was similarly enthused.

?It was really cool,? she said.

?Everything was very well organised and even though at first I was a bit nervous about competing in front of all those people (20,000),I think I performed better in the finals than I did before.?

Triathlete Karen Smith, however, was not so happy with her Games performance ? although her horrific accident at the World Age Group Championships in Hawaii last October had seriously disrupted her preparation.

?The Games were absolutely fantastic but I was a little disappointed with my result,? she said, referring to her second to last place in the women?s triathlon.

?The accident did not help my training obviously and I had a couple of little injuries when I was down there which I thought would be okay after some pretty aggressive treatment. But on the day my legs just weren?t working for me and I know that I am capable of performing much better than that.

?But I got to see a lot of other Bermudians competing throughout the Games which was fun and it was good to see some of them do well.?

National cycling coach Greg Hopkins, meanwhile, lavished praise on his three-strong team of Butterfield, Geri Mewett and Julia Hawley ? although he could not conceal his delight with the undoubted star of the show.

Butterfield, who has returned to his Vendee U team-mates in France, finished a mere 26 seconds off bronze medal pace and was one of only 35 cyclists out of a starting field of 125 to finish the gruelling 160 kilometre road race in the Games? last event.

?Tyler is a world class rider who will go all the way in my opinion,? he said.

?He has so much ability and when you consider that he has only been riding full time for a year and the difficulty of the course and the fact that it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it really was a sensational ride.?