Para-bowler's guide dog given closing ceremony kit

When Wales won a bronze medal in the visually impaired mixed pairs bowls on Tuesday, four medals were awarded.

One each for Steffan James and Julie Thomas, as well as their directors John Wilson and Jamie Jones.

But there is a fifth member of the team that is just as important, Thomas’ guide dog Yoko.

“She’s absolutely essential for me,” she said.

“I couldn’t take part and do these things without her.

“She enables me to get around, to walk independently and to actually function at these Games, because she’s just my lifeline.

“I think she’s also quite a nice thing for the rest of the team because she’s so calming and relaxing.

I’m very calm on a bowls green, but if something doesn’t go your way, you can just go off and give her a little kiss and a cuddle and it’s fine.”

Team Wales chef de mission Gethin Jones surprised Julie and Yoko with the kit on Sunday. [BBC Sport]

Thomas has competed at three Commonwealth Games with Yoko and each time has made a request.

“It was mentioned for the very first time in 2018 when we went to the Gold Coast,” she continued.

“‘Oh, we must get Team kit for Yoko,’ and it didn’t happen.

“Then they assured me I was going to have it in 2022. It didn’t happen.”

Come the Glasgow Games, Thomas was still keen for Yoko to don the kit.

The man tasked with facilitating this request? Team Wales’ Chef de Mission Gethin Jones.

“At the start of these Games I told her, ‘Julie, I don’t think it’s going to be possible’,” he said.

“In the meantime, I’d been working on a little project.

“We had a Wales kit made especially for Yoko, and it’s finally arrived.

“Yoko’s birthday falls on the same day as the closing ceremony.

“She will be there, so this is also a little birthday present to celebrate her big day.”

Team Wales volunteer Eirian Thomas was drafted in with for this side quest, and has been busy for requests for her needle and thread.

“It actually started off because sewing is my hobby,” she said.

“Rebecca [Edwards-Symmons, Team Wales chief executive officer] found out that I sew and volunteered my services to members of the Team Scotland board.

“I ended up altering four kilts so they could wear them without them falling down.

“Then I came in one morning and Rebecca said to me, ‘I may have volunteered you to make a dog coat out of a T-shirt’.”

Eirian then went about making a kit for Yoko, though it was not the most simple of tasks.

“I was looking at pictures of the dog because I’d never seen her in person,” she continued.

“She looked about the same size as my dog at home, so I phoned my husband and said, ‘I need you to measure the dog’.

“He just said, ‘Okay, that’s fine,’ with no questions.”

Team Wales volunteer Eirian Thomas adapted a t-shirt for Yoko the guide dog. [BBC Sport]

The lovingly-adapted kit feature some special touches, including Yoko’s name written in Braille on the back.

“I’m quite touched by it all, to be honest,” Para-bowls bronze medallist Thomas said.

“To be honest, I thought they might just get a shirt and put a few holes in it.

“But to have gone out of their way and done something so special, it’s just amazing. It makes me feel like a real part of the team.”

So Julie and Yoko will walk out together at the closing ceremony on Sunday, which also happens to be Yoko’s birthday.