AFTER suffering a knee injury in just the fourth event of a two day decathlon, it looked like it may be the end of Curtis Mathews' Commonwealth Games.

However, buoyed on by the roar of the crowd, a desire to do Barry proud and a dose of painkillers Curtis pulled through and ended up achieving six Personal Best records and finishing in an impressive 10th place overall.

After all this you would imagine Curtis would want an early night and a long rest. Speaking to the Barry and District the day after the final event of the Men's Decathlon, Curtis wearily admitted that he had ended up staying awake for close to 24 hours having been dragged out for a few celebratory drinks by visiting pals from back home.

For someone whose sole aim this season was to qualify for the Games, former Barry Boys School pupils Curtis was thrilled with his record breaking performance.

"After hurting my knee in the fourth event," he said, "For me to still go out and get personal bests, especially in the hurdles, I couldn't have asked for more.

"When I was warming up for the hurdles, it wasn't going well. Coming off the hurdles onto my knee was really painful so to run that well was unbelievable."

Curtis also achieved personal bests in the 100m, Shot Put, Discus, Pole Vault and Javelin. And incredible achievement given the agony Curtis was in after hurting his patella tendon in the high jump.

The 22-year-old said that it was the thrill of being in front of a huge live audience and millions of TV viewers that allowed him to set aside the pain and compete to his fullest.

He said: "To know that everyone I know and everyone I've grown up with are all watching, I'm thinking about that on the starting line and it doesn't make me nervous it just makes me want to show them what I can do and make them proud."

This being his fourth decathlon this year, Curtis is now planning on taking a few months off before returning to competition in the winter.