THE blood-stained smile will live long in the memory.

Alex Gladkov, the pride of his family, did not have celebrations in mind last night.

His pressing task was to send pictures of himself on the Commonwealth podium to his grandfather, Leonid, exiled in Russia after fleeing war-torn eastern Ukraine only a week ago.

The Lugansk-born, Glasgow-minded wrestler followed in the wake of Viorel Etko, an Aberdonian-Moldovan, in picking up Scotland's second bronze medal on the mats.

These are the first Scottish wrestling medals in 20 years, two unmistakable victories for multiculturalism, and Gladkov's prize could not have been harder-earned.

He lost in the last 16 to eventual gold medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, the Indian who subsequently accounted for Gareth Jones. Gladkov and Jones, training partners, then squared off in the repechage and the former won, before going through the most destructive and dramatic six minutes of his career.

Gladkov started his bronze-medal match brilliantly, rolling Chamara Perera five times to get ten points on the board.

He felt that should have been enough but the judges gave the Sri Lankan a couple of points to keep him in the contest, and then it got complicated.

As Gladkov lost focus, Perera drew back to within one point, and after Gladkov regained the initiative he was dumped on his back, his right knee appearing to buckle.

After five minutes of treatment and strapping he made it to the break 15-13 up, but in bits. He had to summon all his reserves to last the next three minutes, eventually winning 23-16.

"I can barely speak my mouth is so dry, I don't have any energy left, my knee is sore and I've never been in such a bad condition after a fight, but I feel fantastic," the 28-year-old said.

"My mum asked me to bring a medal back for my granddad, who is currently in Russia - he left Ukraine a week ago because the bombing and shooting was so bad.

"I'm going to send out the pictures today and hopefully he can share a bit of my happiness.

"As one of my friends said: 'Russia and Ukraine is my country, but Glasgow and Scotland is my home.'"

There were six Scottish wrestlers in action yesterday, but Kathryn Marsh was the only other one to feature in the evening session. Up against the stocky Louisa Porogovska of England, she was beaten 4-2 in a cagey contest - the adjective is deliberate because of where Marsh started her combat career.

"I started in cage fighting but my wrestling wasn't strong, hence why I started. When I started I was getting beat, so I decided to stick with it until I started winning. I've still got some way to go. But I'm going to stick with wrestling."

Chelsea Murphy, US-based Joseph Luigi Bianco and Lewis Waddell, 18, were the other Scots eliminated in the morning session.