Compiled by David Tarbotton
Swimming, athletics and four of our teams are in action on day five of the Commonwealth Games.
ATHLETICS
Cedric Dubler and the decathletes open the second day of athletics. The evening session includes the blue-ribbon events, the 100m for men and women and T38 para men where Evan O’Hanlon makes his Commonwealth Games debut and is the warm favourite for gold. Last night Damien Birkinhead easily progressed into the shot final tonight where he is a medal hope.
BASKETBALL – MEN
The Boomers will round out their preliminary pool games against Nigeria after knocking off a determined New Zealand side last outing. The Tall Blacks pushed Australia right to the limit, so our Aussies will be looking to improve on an at times performance before things hot up in the medal rounds. Nigeria are currently winless from their two outings.
BASKETBALL – WOMEN
The Opals will be looking to make it three from three when they take on the English in their last preliminary game. Australia has won its first two games by 60 and 39 points against and with Liz Cambage in strong form should be more than the English can handle.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
The Australian men’s beach volleyball team’s final pool game against Trinidad and Tobago shapes as a mouth watering match up with both teams undefeated in pool A and already assured of a quarter finals appearance. Both have had convincing wins over Fiji and Saint Kitts and Nevis but it was the clinical and devastating nature of the local favourites McHugh/Schumann (Aus) victories that will have them as favourites to finish on top of their pool.
The Aussie wins over Fiji (21-9, 21-9) and then Saint Kitts and Nevis (21-3, 21-11) were as good as you’d ever hope to see on the volleyball court for their precision, power and complete dominance of an opponent. However Trinidad and Tobago will be no pushovers and were not far behind the Aussies in their impressiveness against the same opposition defeating Fiji (21-9, 21-17) and St Kitts (21-14, 21-14).
It’ll be a good test for the Australians who so far have had little to no pressure coming from the other side of the net. A tough close hit out with Trinidad and Tobago, who’d love a big scalp to boost their confidence before finals action, could be just what the Aussies need to get them battle hardened for the more challenging matches that lay ahead.
The men’s match V Trinidad and Tobago is on at 7.30pm.
GYMNASTICS – ARTISTIC
The Artistic Gymnastics competition wraps up tomorrow with day two of the Individual Apparatus Finals. Australia will once again be represented by Chris Remkes and Michael Tone in the Men’s side of the competition, with Remkes competing on Vault and Tone on Horizontal Bar.
In the Women’s competition, Georgia-Rose Brown with be back in action, with a full schedule; competing in both the Beam and Floor Finals. She will be joined by Emily Whitehead in the Beam Final, whilst Alex Eade will get her chance to return to the competition arena in the Floor Final.
Competition kicks off at 2.30pm.
HOCKEY – WOMEN
Monday 9 April will be the day the whole of Oceania tunes in as Australia take on New Zealand. While the Hockeyroos took the honours at the recent Oceania Cup, New Zealand had a great 2017, qualifying for the World Cup via the Hockey World League semifinals and finishing second in the Hockey World League final in Auckland. Expect fireworks on the Gold Coast as world ranked four versus five gets underway.
LAWN BOWLS
Our women’s fours contingent of Kelsey Cottrell, Carla Krizanic, Rebecca Van Asch and Natasha Scott will also attempt to secure a medal of the golden variety tomorrow against South Africa. The contingent will also commence their campaign in four more disciplines tomorrow; the women’s pairs and triples and men’s singles and fours.
NETBALL
Australia take on our pacific neighbours, Fiji, late in the day as we continue our pool A preliminary games.
SHOOTING
Four-time Olympian Dan Repacholi will take up his opportunity to defend his Commonwealth title in the men’s 10m Air Pistol on day two with Games debutant, Kerry Bell. Young gun Rossiter will also make her Games debut next to Glasgow 2014 team member Emma Adams in the women’s 10m Air Rifle. We will also be looking for amazing things from our two world-class Full Bore shooters Jim Bailey and Ben Emms, who have big boots to fill. Australia’s Bruce Scott won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in the Open Full Bore at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
SWIMMING
Defending champion, Mitch Larkin starts favourite for the men’s 200m backstroke. One to watch is the NSW Central Coast ‘find’ Bradley Woodward. Can Cate Campbell defend her 100m title? In Glasgow it was a 1-2-3 form Australia courtesy of Cate, Bronte Campbell and Emma McKeon. Four-time Paralympian Matt Levy is a strong medal hope in the S7 50m freestyle. The women’s 800m freestyle is world class between defending champion Jazz Carlin of Wales and the Aussie pair of Jess Ashwood (Australian record holder) and rising star Ariarne Titmus.
WEIGHTLIFTING
The final day of the weightlifting program wraps up with a bumper schedule of four medal events at the Carrara Sports Arena. Ridge Barredo will compete in the men’s 105 kg division, while Damon Kelly quests for a fourth consecutive medal in the super heavyweight division. Kaity Fassina will hope to push for medals in an eight athlete 90kg field while Deb Lovely Acason will also be competing, in the women’s 90kg + class.
