Bermuda might look back on the 18th Commonwealth Games as a festival in which our male athletes were largely overshadowed by their female companions.

And in the history of Island sports, that?s something that, for whatever reason, has rarely happened.

We have, of course, seen memorable individual performances from girls in the past. Sprinter Debbie Jones at the height of her career in the 1970s was a world class athlete, Jennifer Fisher, Sandra Mewett and Debbie Butterfield all superb distance runners, sailor Sara Lane Wright came home with a silver medal from the Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg in 1999 and Paula Lewin has made waves wherever she?s chosen to compete.

Yet it?s difficult to remember when so many of our female competitors have made such an impression on the same stage in so short a space of time.

It all started in Melbourne with the stirring performance by teenager Flora Duffy, whose eighth place finish in the women?s triathlon can probably be only fully appreciated by those who understand the intensely competitive nature of the sport.

Unlike the men?s event, the real superstars of the women?s version all hail from Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand, England and Canada. Had this been the Olympics, the field, while numbering only a meagre 25, couldn?t have been much stronger in depth.

Those in front and behind Duffy were professionals who devote every living day to their sport. That an 18-year-old schoolgirl could challenge their authority says much about the young Bermudian?s performance on the day and a lot more about the potential yet to be realised.

Perhaps inspired by Duffy?s showing, the Island girls who followed her were equally determined and arguably as impressive.

Swimmer Kiera Aitken reached two semi-finals and a final in a sport which, in Australia at least, doesn?t come any more competitive.

In Kiera?s speciality, the backstroke ? and most other events at the city?s expansive Aquatics Centre ? it took anything from three or four, and in some cases, six heats to determine the semi-finalists.

And as the 22-year-old Dalhousie University student was acutely aware, having won her heat at the Athens Olympics, victory in these morning sessions means little. It?s only those with the fastest times who progress, no matter what their position.

That Aitken can now boast being the seventh fastest 50m backstroke swimmer in the Commonwealth and 11th best over twice that distance, is no mean achievement. A small matter of becoming our first female to duck under the 30 second barrier in the 50 backstroke also shouldn?t be underestimated.

Personal bests were a theme on which track runner Ashley Couper thrived. Her top ten finish in the final of the 1,500 metres will surely be cherished as the pinnacle of her athletic career, made all the more satisfying by the fact that on the way she twice smashed national records, carving an amazing seven seconds off her previous fastest time.

If this trio best encapsulated Bermuda?s success Down Under, there were others who made their own indelible mark.

Cyclist Julia Hawley showed that after reaching 40 it?s not all downhill.

At 42, this working mother-of-two continued to scale new heights.

In the women?s time trial she set a personal fastest time over 29 kilometres and in the road race hung tough over 100 kilometres for a thoroughly respectable 25th place finish.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bermuda saw two 13-year-olds, the youngest gymnasts among all those present in Melbourne, fight their way into the All-Around final, albeit via a circuitous route.

Caitlin Mello, who placed 25th individually during team competition, and Kaisey Griffith who finished 29th, advanced to a final field of 24 thanks to the combination of a rule which stipulates no country can carry more than three gymnasts into the final and some late withdrawals.

But they showed enough promise inside the spectacular Rod Laver Arena to suggest that if they stay with the programme they?ll make the final in four years? time without any outside help.

Another teenager, long jumper Arantxa King, at 16 also the youngest in her event, hinted she too might have benefited enormously from the experience and will be a much more serious threat in senior competition a few years further down the road.

On this occasion nerves might have got the better of the world youth champion, but it would be surprising if someone with such precocious talent didn?t continue to improve.

Of course, Melbourne wasn?t all about the women.

Cyclist Tyler Butterfield?s four-hour marathon in the men?s road race, in which he finished just seconds outside of a place on the podium, was every bit as inspiring as Duffy?s performance in the triathlon.

After a starting field of 125 had been reduced to just 35 on a torturous course on which riders were withdrawn once lapped, Butterfield entered the last 10K of a 166K race with the leaders still in his sights.

His 11th place finish with same time as the rider who placed fifth was nothing less than astonishing, given that the five-member professional outfits from Australia, South Africa and England were always going to dominate proceedings. Had Butterfield been a member of the all-conquering Aussie team, it?s not far fetched to suggest it could have been he who ultimately stood atop the dias.

At 22, like so many of Bermuda?s athletes who competed at these Games, Butterfield?s best years are still to come.

It might now be 30 years since Bermuda won its only Olympic medal ? a bronze from boxer Clarence Hill in Montreal ? but the signs from Melbourne suggested another could be just around the corner.