IMAGE|| MICHAEL WILLSON
ATHLETICS
The heptathlon starts its two-day program where teenager Celeste Mucci and Alysha Burnett fly the flag for the host nation. In the evening, Australia’s rising 20-year-old pole star, Kurtis Marschall, takes on former world champion Shawnacy Barber from Canada. Red hot gold medal favourite Dani Stevens lines up to defend her discus title. In the women’s long jump, the in-form Brooke Stratton is looking good for a podium. In the men’s half-mile Luke Mathews and Joseph Deng have made it to the top-eight in the Commonwealth and line up in the final tonight.
BADMINTON
Australia is involved in five round of 16 matches on Day 8 of the Badminton.
It will be the first match for the number one seeds in the womens doubles Setyana Mapasa and Gronja Somerville after a bye in the previous round play Danielle Whiteside and Alyssa Dean of Fiji.
Mapasa then teams up with Sawan Serasinghe in the mixed doubles and after a comfortable opening round win, they meet Canada looking to earn the right to move into the Quarters.
Seransinghe has a big day like Mapasa playing in the mens Doubles with Matthew Chau, while the Singles players have massive tests doing battle against some of the best players in the world.
Anthony Joe in the Mens singles plays the number 3 seed Pranoy of India, while Chen who has lost just a total of ten points in both her games so far meets Sindu of India the Number one seed in this tournament, who won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Australia will be looking to complete the golden double and sweep the inaugural Commonwealth Games beach volleyball tournament.
Chris McHugh and Damien Schumann will take on Samuel Pedlow and Sam Schachter from Canada who have breezed through the competition to this point. The clash looms as an epic encounter with neither pair having lost a set thus far in the tournament.
Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar will also take on the might of Canada after escaping a tense three-set match with Vanuatu. Just like their male counterparts, Humana-Paredes and Pavan from Canada haven’t dropped a set and loom as formidable opponents.
McHugh and Schumann take to the sand at 4:30 PM while Clancy and Artacho del Solar will have to wait until 8:30 PM.
CYCLING – MOUNTAIN BIKE
2014 bronze medallists and dual Olympians Daniel McConnell and Rebecca McConnell (nee Henderson) will contest the mountain bike cross-country competition at Nerang National Park at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games today.
DIVING
Australia has a number of medals hopes on day two of their program. The star of the Australian team, 1m springboard world champion, Maddison Keeney will be hoping to add the Commonwealth title to her list of achievements. Other hopes on the day include Esther Qin, who won gold yesterday and Domonic Bedggood and Matt Carter in the 10m synchro.
GYMNASTICS – RHYTHMIC
In the Apparatus finals Australia has medal hopes across the disciplines. Enid Sung will compete in the Hoop, three-time Commonwealth Games representative, Danielle Prince, along with Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva compete in the Ball. Prince performs to the Bonnie Tyler tune, Total Eclipse of the Heart.
In the Clubs Enid Sung is our representative and in the Ribbon Sung and Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva will compete.
HOCKEY – WOMEN
The Hockeyroos will face India in their semi-final match of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and there’s an element of the unknown having not played them in almost 18 months.
India are currently ranked 10th in the world but got through their pool with three wins and one defeat, going down 3-2 to Wales in their opening game before storming home.
The Indians knocked off second-ranked England 2-1 in the pool, but missed out on top spot purely on goal difference.
Australia finished top of their pool with 10 points from four games, having claimed three wins and a draw to finish ahead of New Zealand who secured two wins and two draws.
England and New Zealand (ranked fourth) are the two highest ranked nations still in the draw, so fifth-ranked Australia have put themselves in a great position to reach the gold medal match.
LAWN BOWLS
Australia’s women’s triples team of Carla Krizanic, Natasha Scott and Rebecca Van Asch will come up against the Old Enemy, England, in tomorrow morning’s semi-final from 9.00am.
The men’s fours team will play their last sectional match against South Africa tomorrow from 9.00am, alongside Aaron Wilson’s men’s singles quarter-final against Northern Ireland’s Gary Kelly, the women’s triples semi against England, and our women’s pairs quarter-final contest against Scotland.
It’s set to be a mammoth day on the greens for the Australian Jackaroos contingent tomorrow, as it looks to secure three more spots in gold medal matches contested on Friday.
SHOOTING
Pistol shooter David Chapman, competing at his fourth Games and second on home soil following Melbourne 2006, will be aiming to defend his Commonwealth title on day five. He will compete in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol alongside recently crowned World University Champion Sergei Evglevski, who will be proudly supported by his teammate and Mum, Lalita. Seasoned shooters Suzy Smith and Robyn Ridley are also in action in the women’s 50m prone rifle.
SQUASH
There are just two doubles matches on tomorrow as the pool rounds of the doubles tournament come to a close. In the mixed doubles Donna Urquhart and Cameron Pilley will take on Cayman Island’s Marlene West and Cameron Stafford, while Ryan Cuskelly and Rachael Grinham take on Pakistan’s Madina Zafar and Tayyab Aslam.
The mixed doubles quarter finals, and men’s doubles rounds continue in the afternoon, with the draw yet to be decided.
TABLE TENNIS
We’re one day closer to the medal rounds of the table tennis, and tomorrow, our table tennis athletes will be competing in the last stages of the Para-table tennis tournament, the mixed doubles as well as the men and women’s doubles.
The day will start with two women’s doubles matches – Jian Fang Lay and Miao Miao will take on Singapore’s Ye Lin and Yihan Zhou, while Melissa Tapper and Michelle Bromley will come up against Malaysia duo Alice Sian Li Chang and Ai Xin Tee. Xin Yan and Jian Fang Lay will compete against Singapore, and Yan will play a second time with Hemming Hu to take on Trinidad and Tobago. The quarterfinals will be played in the evening, with the draw yet to be decided.
In the Para-events, Melissa Tapper is closer to completing a perfect group stage, and will face PNG’s Vero Nime. Andrew McDonnell will take on India’s Vaishnari Sutar while Barak Mizrachi will play South Africa’s Theo Gogill.
WRESTLING
Connor Evans will lead our medal hopes into day one of the wrestling program, with the former Scottish wrestler taking on the men in the 74 kilogram category. Evans quit his job in the lead-up to the Games in order to train 25 hours per week so will be primed to perform when he takes to the mat.
Carissa Holland, who is competing at her second games, has worked hard to ensure she is under the 53 kilogram weight threshold and gets her chance to perform.
Naomi de Bruine will be wrestling in the women’s 76kg class. The quietly spoken special ed teacher from NSW is competing only eight months after representing her country in judo at the World University Games.
Local Gold Coast boy Tom Cicchini is in the 57kg class and has been fastidious in his preparation to ensure he is under that weight limit.
The first session starts at 10.30 AM and the afternoon evening session at 5 PM at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre.
