Clare Balding says she’s a better presenter after weight loss

Sports presenter Clare Balding is walking tall.

Putting her best foot forward is helping Clare Balding stride through her duties at the Commonwealth Games. And the BBC’s star presenter says Glasgow’s the perfect place to make sure she’s always at her best.

Clare, 43, is a slimmed-down version of her old self after shedding a stone-and-a-half recently. She confesses it boosted her performance during the Winter Olympics and she’s been keeping up her fitness regime.

“Walking is a big deal for me,” confides Clare. “During the Sochi Games I walked for an hour or an hour-and-a-half every morning and swam every day, too.

“For the first time I felt my performance didn’t dip at all. And normally it will at some stage during a long run. You’ll have a bad day or an emotional crash, but I didn’t at all in Sochi. So I’m doing the same in Glasgow.”

Clare had some previous experience of the walkable nature of the city for her Radio 4 Ramblings series. And she says she literally found Glasgow a dead attractive place with the famous graveyard by Glasgow Cathedral a prime destination.

“I love the Necropolis, it’s a fantastic place to walk,” she enthuses. “Glasgow’s one of those cities where you have to look up as you go, with great architecture and gargoyles staring down at you.

“My wardrobe has changed a lot recently and even tops I wore at the Olympics are too big for me. I definitely feel and speak better.”

Clare is increasingly the face of BBC Sport.

Despite her genuinely embarrassed: “Oh, I don’t think I am”, she’s the presenter the bosses turn to when they want a viewers’ favourite.

She confesses that taking over the mantle is something that’s come as a bit of a shock. No more than leading Olympics coverage after Sue Barker decided to step back and just do some commentary.

“I was having breakfast with her the day before the Opening Ceremony and she wished me luck and told me I’d fly through it. I suddenly thought, ‘Oh my God! Of course, Sue would have hosted that before’.

“I try and watch people all the time and pick up on the things they do. Davina McCall and Claudia Winkleman who was a fabulous choice, the only choice, for Strictly connect with the cameras brilliantly.

“And I watch a lot of American TV and Ellen De Generes is a fantastic presenter and Oprah’s a great interviewer.”