[4] Canada and Jamaica rounded out the top five while hosts India enjoyed their greatest ever haul at the Games, taking home two golds and twelve medals altogether.

Four failed doping tests have so far been announced: Nigerian Oludamola Osayomi was stripped of the women's 100 m title, and her compatriot Samuel Okon, a 110 m hurdler, was also disqualified.

Caster Semenya, Commonwealth champion Christine Ohuruogu, and Olympic medallist Lisa Dobriskey were among the athletes missing due to injury, but others including Usain Bolt, David Rudisha and Shelly-Ann Fraser opted to miss the competition out of choice – all ten of the year's fastest Commonwealth men's 100 m runners (including defending champion Asafa Powell) were not present.

[10] Further to this, two reigning world champions (English jumper Phillips Idowu and Australian thrower Dani Samuels) declared themselves out of the running on grounds of the security and accommodation conditions in Delhi.

At the competition Amantle Montsho (Botswana) and Cydonie Mothersill (Cayman Islands) all won the first ever Commonwealth gold medals for their respective countries.

The number of medal sweeps in the athletics (6) was at an all-time high for the competition: Kenya took all top three spaces in four events, England beat all in the men's hurdles while hosts India completed a 1–2–3 in the women's discus.