There will be big nights again for cycling and swimming on day three of the Games. Three of our teams are in action after the day kicks off with the triathlon which includes the mixed teams and para triathlon events.

BADMINTON

Australia have a tough quarter final match in the mixed teams event against Singapore on day three of the Badminton competition.

BASKETBALL MEN

The Boomers are back in action with undoubtedly their most difficult assignment of the Games after a dominant 95-55 first-up victory against Canada. Australia now faces the New Zealand Tall Blacks and their host of NBL talent after the New Zealanders trounced the second-seeded Nigeria by 45 points. Our trans-Tasman rivals will be looking to exact revenge after finishing second to the Boomers the last time Basketball was on the Games schedule at the Melbourne 2006 Games.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy are back in action against Grenada at 5:00 PM after their successful straight sets victory against Cyprus on Friday. The Australian pairing have limited intel on the Grenada duo, so will be focusing on their own performance heading into the match.

BOXING

Next up for Australia will be 19-year-old Jack Bowen, who will fight Northern Ireland’s Kurt Walker in the 56kg class. Bowen has been touted as a rising star in his sport, and a future Commonwealth Games medallist.

CYCLING

Six gold medals are on offer on day three of the track cycling competition at the Anna Meares Velodrome:

• Reigning Sprint world champion Matthew Glaetzer will be eager to add Commonwealth Sprint gold to his rainbow jersey and overnight gold medal.
• Amy Cure will line up in the women’s 25km Points Race along with 2016 Olympian Georgia Baker, who will make an amazing debut after overcoming heart surgery in November. The men’s 15km Scratch Race will also be contested.
• Steph Morton will be looking to add to her Gold Coast medal haul when she contests the 500m Time Trial, as will the evergreen Kaarle McCulloch who has been producing some career best times in the recent season.
• Bradley Henderson and pilot Thomas Clarke will be looking to add to their bronze medal and will contest the men’s Tandem Sprint, while Jessica Gallagher and pilot Maddison Janssen will contest the women’s Tandem (Para B&VI) 1000m Time Trial.

GYMNASTICS ARTISTIC

Australia has a chance for medals in the men’s Artistic apparatus finals, but an even better prospect is Mike Mercieca in the all-around.

In the women’s Artistic, our hopes will be in the individual apparatus led by Georgia Godwin who was 13th at the world championships in 2017.

LAWN BOWLS

The Jackaroos will contest their last sectional round in four disciplines at 9:00am and 12:00pm, where they will look to secure top placing and move to the afternoon’s post-sectional quarterfinals in the box seat.

HOCKEY MEN

The Australian men’s hockey team will line up for their first match of the competition, with the undefeated Commonwealth Games champions facing South Africa. The top-ranked Kookaburras, led by retiring veteran Mark Knowles, are in good form and aiming for an unprecedented sixth-straight gold.  The Kookaburras are in Pool A in the men’s draw alongside New Zealand (ninth), Canada (11th), South Africa (15th) and Scotland (23rd).

HOCKEY WOMEN

The Hockeyroos will play under lights in their second pool game of the Commonwealth competition against Ghana, who will be eager to show spectators what they can do on the world stage. GC2018 will be the first time the proud African nation has taken part in a Commonwealth Games hockey competition.

SQUASH

The women’s singles quarter-finals will commence with three-time Commonwealth Games athlete Urquhart facing up against Sarah-Jane Perry from England. Tamika Saxby will compete in the classic plate quarter final, while in the men’s singles, Pilley will take on England’s James Willstrop.

TABLE TENNIS

The women’s team will compete against Singapore in the semi-final this Sunday, while our men’s team will take on Nigeria in their quarterfinal tomorrow at 4pm.

TRIATHLON

One Australian relay team and six paratriathletes will face the starter’s gun in the Triathlon events on day three. The Australian mixed team are the inaugural world champions from 2017 and will hope to continue that form on the Gold Coast. The team members, Ash Gentle, Jacob Birtwhistle, Gillian Backhouse and Matt Hauser, will each cover 250m swim, 6.6km cycle and 1.5km run. Australia’s six paratriathletes Nic Beveridge, Bill Chaffey, Scott Crowley, Emily Tapp, Sara Tait, Lauren Parker should populate the podium in the wheelchair event.

WEIGHTLIFTING

Day three of the Weightlifting competition sees the flamboyant Francois Etoundi, a previous Commonwealth Games medalist, kick off proceedings in the men’s 77kg class. He has been working hard to recover from injury and takes in the third best overall performance in the clean and jerk and snatch into the field of 14. That will be followed by Seen Lee in the women’s 63kg class – a four-time Commonwealth Games representative and Olympic Games performer. She brings a lot of experience into the event and is ranked third.

The proceedings end with the raw 85kg Melbournian Boris Elesin, who has a rich heritage in sport with his mother winning gold for Russia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in high jump and his father, who is also his coach, weightlifting for Armenia in 1996.