ATHLETICS
The penultimate day in athletics includes heats in the men’s relays, and in the evening the conclusion of the heptathlon, where Aussie pair Alysha Burnett and Celeste Mucci were in strong positions overnight. Also in the evening, Nina Kennedy lines up in a truly world class women’s pole vault competition. Matt Denny will be hoping to continue his brilliant form at these championships following his silver in the hammer and his brilliant 64.67m discus qualifier. Australia will also be represented in the 100m hurdles by Brianna Beahan and Michelle Jenneke, while in the men’s 10,000m, Patrick Tiernan and national champion Stewart McSweyn take to the track.
BADMINTON
Setyana Mapasa and Gronja Somerville will take on the talented Malaysian pair of Soniia Cheah and Shevon Jemie Lai, in the women’s doubles quarter finals of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games badminton competition.With the strong Australian crowd on their side, Setyana and Gronja will be determined to ensure they deserve their top seed position and move into the semis at the weekend.
Setyana has a busy quarterfinal day as she will team up in the mixed doubles with Sawan Serasinghe to take on the highly fancied English husband and wife pair of Chris and Gabrielle Adcock who have already defeated the Australians at these games in the teams event.
BASKETBALL – WOMEN
The Opals will have to win their way past our trans-Tasman rivals in order to reach the gold medal game, in a rematch of the 2006 gold medal encounter. The Tall Ferns started with the bottom four seeded teams in pool B before upsetting Mozambique to advance to the knockout stage. New Zealand will be full of confidence after breezing through the preliminary rounds with an average winning margin of 36 points. Liz Cambage and our Aussie girls will go in strong favourites, however, and look to advance to the gold medal game against either Canada or England.
BOXING
Six Australian boxers will fight tomorrow in the bronze medal bouts. While a bronze medal is guaranteed to both athletes, the athletes will all be fighting for their final win of GC2018. Taylah Robertson of Cooroy will fight against England’s Lisa Whiteside in the women’s 51 kilogram division. This will be her second fight of the Games, after beginning with a bye in her division.
Swedish born Anja Stridsman will take on Troy Garton from New Zealand in the 60kg semifinal. Harry Garside will compete against Michael McDonough from Wales, while Clay Waterman will come up against Sammy Lee from the same country.
The fight to watch will be of 22-year-old Sky Nicolson who will fight Canada’s Sabrina Aubin-Bouche.
DIVING
The only final in the morning session will be the men’s synchronised 10m platform and what an event it will be. It features the only appearance at the Games of English diving superstar Tom Daley. He teams up with Daniel Goodfellow, while Australia will be represented by Domonic Bedggood and Declan Stacey who are strong podium prospects.
Australia’s world champion, Maddison Keeney will be aiming to secure the Commonwealth Games title in the 1m springboard. Her toughest competition will come from teammate Esther Qin and England’s Katherine Torrance.
It will be a busy day for Australia’s Domonic Bedggood who competes in both session in the day. In the evening he teams up with Matthew Carter in the 10m synchro and will compete alongside a second Australian team of James Connor and Kurtis Mathews.
GYMNASTICS – RHYTHMIC
The Rhythmic Gymnastics competition concludes tomorrow at Coomera Indoor Sports Centre with the Individual Apparatus Finals. Sung will compete in three finals – Hoop, Clubs and Ribbon – whilst Kiroi-Bogatyreva will appear in two – Ball and Ribbon. We also look forward to welcoming Danielle Prince back to the competition arena, when she competes in the Ball Final.
Competition kicks off at 10am AEST.
HOCKEY – MEN
Expect fireworks at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre on Friday night when the Kookaburras play old-foes England in the semifinal of the GC2018 men’s hockey tournament.
The old Australia-England rivalry will be on display, when the top-ranked Kookas take on seventh-ranked England. The Kookaburras, who conceded just two goals in the competition on their way to topping pool A, recently knocked off England in the Azlan Shah Cup final – although it was far from comfortable, narrowly triumphing 2-1.
LAWN BOWLS
Australia booked another berth in another golden decider tonight, with the men’s fours contingent of Barrie Lester, Brett Wilkie, Nathan Rice and Aron Sherriff advancing courtesy of a scintillating semifinal win over Wales, 15-5.
The quartet will now contest the gold/silver medal decider tomorrow from 12:30pm, against Scotland, who defeated England in the other semifinal contest.The stage is set for an absolute blockbuster finish to that discipline, with Scotland the defending titleholder from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Also staged on the final day of the lawn bowls competition tomorrow from 12:30pm is Aaron Wilson’s blue-ribbon men’s singles semi contest against England’s Robert Paxton.
RUGBY SEVENS
The Australian women’s Rugby Sevens tournament kicks-off at Robina Stadium with two games against Wales (5:37pm) and England (8:17pm). The defending Olympic champions are aiming to win the first gold medal for women’s Rugby Sevens at the Commonwealth Games after its introduction for Gold Coast 2018.
Tim Walsh’s side have enjoyed a week-long camp on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast prior to competition with the squad ramping up preparations against local men’s teams. Australia currently lead the Women’s World Rugby Sevens Series after winning the opening two legs in Dubai and Sydney.
SHOOTING
Reigning Commonwealth champion Laetisha Scanlan and Olympic gold medallist Catherine Skinner are in action on day six, along with Commonwealth Games’ debutants Mitchell Iles and Thomas Grice. They will be looking to set the pace in the women’s and men’s trap events at the Belmont Shooting Range.
SQUASH
There will be just four matches for Australians tomorrow, with each pairing competing for a spot in the following day’s semifinals. Competition will get tougher as the best of the best in the Commonwealth are left in medal contention.
In the women’s tournament, Rachael Grinham and Donna Urquhart will play Wales’ Tesni Evans and Deon Saffrey.
The men’s event will prove to be the matches to watch, with Ryan Cuskelly and Cameron Rilley who have won each match so far up against England’s Daryl Selby and Adrian Walker. Zac Alexander and David Palmer will also compete tomorrow against Paul Cull and Campbell Grayson from New Zealand.
In the mixed tournament, Urquhart and Pilley will compete against England’s Alison Waters and Daryl Selby.
TABLE TENNIS
Tomorrow will be a tough day for the Australian table tennis team as it heads towards the pointy end of the competition. Tomorrow’s matches will be vital for a spot in the gold medal matches, with each athlete gunning to win Australia’s first Commonwealth gold in the sport.
Heming Hu and Xin Yan will come up against India’s Desai Harmeet and Sanil Shankar Shetty in the men’s doubles quarterfinal. The semifinals will take place in the evening.
Jian Fang Lay will also compete in the quarterfinals of the women’s tournament, coming up against Canada’s Mo Zhang.
It will be a tough day for Para-table tennis athletes Melissa Tapper and Andrea McDonnell as they face off against each other for a spot in the gold medal match.
WRESTLING
Australia has two competitors on the second day of wrestling at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre.
Nick Verreynne, a late replacement in the men’s 97kg weight division for UFC fighter Rob Whittaker, will be on second in that class in a field of 8. He takes Joe Hendy of Scotland in that quarterfinal match.
Australia’s other representative is Mehrdad Tarash in his third Commonwealth Games. He will wrestle in the 65kg class and takes much experience into his opening bout against Vincent De Marinis.
No doubt Tarash, one of three brothers to represent Australia in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games, will be hoping it’s a case of third time lucky in his quest to win a medal.
