IMAGE|| MICHAEL WILLSON
Compiled by David Tarbotton
Ahead of the team sport final which commence tomorrow, Lawn Bowls continued their record breaking Games with another two medals.
GOLD MEDALS (2)
Lawn Bowls Men’s Singles Aaron WILSON
Shooting Women’s Trap Laetisha SCANLAN
SILVER MEDALS (3)
Diving Women’s 1m Springboard Georgia SHEEHAN
Lawn Bowls Men’s Fours Brett WILKIE Aron SHERRIFF Barrie LESTER Nathan RICE
Shooting Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Sergei EVGLEVSKI
BRONZE MEDALS (7)
Gymnastics Rhythmic Ball Alexandra KIROI-BOGATYREVA
Diving Men’s Synchronised 3m Springboard Domonic BEDGGOOD bio photo Matthew CARTER
Diving Women’s 1m Springboard Esther QIN
Diving Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform Domonic BEDGGOOD Declan STACEY
Boxing Men’s 81kg Clay WATERMAN
Boxing Women’s 51k Taylah ROBERTSON
Athletics Women’s Pole Vault Nina KENNEDY
ATHLETICS
It was a quiet night at the track and field for the Aussie team with just one bronze medal won by Nina Kennedy in the women’s pole vault. She cleared a massive 4.60 metres to finish ahead of teammates Liz Parnov (fifth) and Lisa Campbell (11th). The men’s competition opened with the 3,000m steeplechase, in which 27-year-old James Nipperess placed ninth. In the men’s discus throw, Matt Denny attempted to back-up his silver in the hammer with another medal but couldn’t out-throw the Jamaican and Cypriot competitors. He finished the night in fourth place with a throw of 62.53m, Mitch Cooper followed in fifth place (60.40m) and Benn Harradine’s career drew to a close in sixth place (59.92m). In the men’s 10,000m, Stewart McSweyn finished 11th while Patrick Tiernan was disqualified.
In the heptathlon, teenager Celeste Mucci set a personal best (PB) score of 5915 points, breaking her national under-20 record to finish in fourth place. During the course of the event she set PBs in the 100m hurdles (13.19), shot (12.22m) and javelin (43.03m). There was a gallant performance by Alysha Burnett. Leading after three events and with strong events on day two, unfortunately, she strained her hamstring in the last event on day one, the 200m. She battled on and still hit an impressive javelin mark of 46.56m, finishing ninth overall with a score of 5628 points. In the final athletics event of Friday night, the women’s 100m hurdles, Michelle Jenneke and Brianna Beahan just pulled-up short of podium finishes by the Jamaican and Nigerian athletes, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
There was high drama in the morning session of the athletics. The men’s 4x100m team comfortably progressed to the final placing a close second in their heat in a time of 38.78 – their fastest for five years. But there was disappointment in the men’s 4x400m when the baton-change between Josh Ralph and Steve Solomon resulted the team to be disqualified when they were in the wrong position on the track. All five Aussies progressed to the final in the men’s 1500m (Ryan Gregson, Jordy Williamsz and Luke Mathews) and men’s javelin (Luke Cann and Hamish Peacock).
BADMINTON
Australia is still in medal contention in the badminton in one event after the women’s number one seeds, Gronja Somerville and Setyana Mapasa had a clinical and solid victory over the Malaysian opponents Cheah and Lai.
They were very good in the big points in both games and closed out the match 21-15, 21-18.
Unfortunately, the news was not so good in the mixed doubles with Sawan Serasinghe and Setyana Mapasa. They lost to the sport’s glamour couple, the Adcocks from England, Chris and Gabby, the reigning mixed doubles commonwealth Games gold medallists.
Sawan and Setyana began positively and it was point for point up to 9 all, but the Adcocks, with Chris attacking from the back of the court and his wife, Gabby, cat like at the net, won 12 of the next 13 points in a dominant display to win the first game 21-10.
The Australians stayed in the second game longer, but seemed to have had their confidence sapped by the first game and they lost 21-14.
BASKETBALL – WOMEN
The Australian Opals have booked their ticket to the GC2018 basketball gold medal match with a flurry of opening-term scoring and stifling pressure defence. Liz Cambage and our Aussie women dominated the New Zealand Tall Ferns and secured a 59-point victory.
The Opals swarmed all over New Zealand on the defensive end, depriving our trans-Tasman rivals of passing lanes in a rematch of the Melbourne 2006 gold medal game. All 12 players on the deep Opals roster put the ball through the basket in an impressive all-round team performance.
BOXING
Australian boxer Anja Stridsman was the first of four boxers to win their semifinals today, claiming victory over New Zealand’s Troy Garton to book a spot in the 60 kilogram gold medal bout.
Continuing on from Stridsman’s success was Harry Garside who won his semifinal against Mickey McDonagh from Wales. This was a win via split decision, with the judges favouring the home boxer.
It was another win for heavyweight Jason Whateley in the 91kg division gold medal decider, defeating India’s Naman Tanwar. The bout was seemingly even until the end of the second round when the only Olympian on the Australian boxing team surged forward to win in a unanimous decision.
22-year-old Skye Nicolson will go for gold in the 57kg final, after beating Canada’s Sabrina Aubin-Boucher in today’s semifinal. Nicolson was buoyed by the home crowd and was victorious in a 4-1 split decision.
Commonwealth Games debutant Taylah Robertson lost her quarterfinal against England’s Lisa Whiteside, and will now take home bronze. The 19-year-old lost on a split decision, with Whiteside taking the win 3-2. Robertson had scored a bye in the division of just seven athletes, meaning it was her first and last bout of the Games.
Caitlin Parker also had a gallant win with a 5-0 unanimous decision over Nigeria’s Millicent Agboegbulem in the 75kg division. Parker will now face Lauren Price of Wales in the final.
DIVING
The men’s synchronised 10 metre platform event saw another bronze added to the Aussie medal tally, thanks to the unified work of Domonic Bedggood and Declan Stacey. While the dynamic duo was unable to unseat the top two English pairs holding the gold and silver positions, they put their best moves forward to secure the bronze with their sixth and final dive.
In a challenging one metre springboard final, the Aussie ladies have come away with the silver and bronze medals. After some disappointing dives from the competition in the early rounds, the Aussies brought the quality up in the third round. Esther Qin made an impressive comeback, clawing her way up to the bronze position after placing 12th in the first round. Georgia Sheehan impressed the crowd and the judges with a smooth reverse 1 ½ somersaults on her final dive to claim silver.
The competition was tough in the men’s synchronised three metre springboard final tonight. With a quality field, the Aussie men needed to bring their A game. The synchronised stylings of Domonic Bedggood and Matthew Carter dominated the pool from the first round, but by the mid-way point they conceded some ground to the strength of the English and Malaysian teams. After a hard-fought six rounds, Bedggood and Carter finished with the bronze behind England (gold) and Canada (silver). Our second pair, James Connor and Kurtis Mathews dived well to finish in sixth place.
GYMNASTIC – RHYTHMIC
Australia finished off their Gymnastics campaign at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games today in style, with 16-year-old Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva taking out the bronze medal in the Ball final.
The youngest member of the entirety of the Australian Gymnastics team saved her best performances for the final day of competition, performing an errorless routine to score 13.250 and earn her a place on the podium. Diamanto Evripidou of Cyprus (13.800) and Sie Yan Koi of Malaysia (13.400) earnt the top two places of the podium.
Unfortunately the story was not so great for Australian Rhythmic Gymnastics royalty, Danielle Prince. Getting over the disappointment of only making one Final after the first day of qualifications, Prince was determined to make her final routine – with the Ball – count.
But unfortunately an error on her third risk saw the Ball fly out of area with Prince having to continue the routine with the spare apparatus. Her score of 7.600 cemented the fact that she would not achieve an individual medal.
Performing her third stellar Hoop routine for the competition, Enid Sung finished just outside the medals in fourth position with a score of 13.400, leaving Cyprus’ Diamanto Evripidou (14.850), Wales’ Laura Halford (14.000) and Malaysia’s Amy Kwan (13.550) to fight it out for the medals.
Today’s sessions didn’t just mark the end of Rhythmic Gymnastics competition at the XXI Commonwealth Games, but the end of the Gymnastics competition in its entirety. The Aussie gymnasts came away from GC2018 with a total of nine medals – two gold, two silver and five bronze.
HOCKEY – MEN
The Kookaburras have advanced to the gold medal match of the GC2018 Games, following a tight fought 2-1 semi-final victory over old rivals England.
It was a perfect start for the Aussies, with Trent Mitton scoring a powerful strike inside the first minute of play – 25 seconds to be precise.
Possession was the name of the game in the first half, with England moving and holding the ball with precision and poise. However, they were unable to penetrate the resolute Australian defence, who looked ominous on the counter-attack.
Fireworks were on display in the second half, and Australia conceded their third goal of the tournament in the 37th minute courtesy of England’s Co-Captain Ian Sloan.
Mitton found the back of the net again from a well-worked penalty corner in the third quarter, netting his sixth goal of the GC2018 Games and giving the Kookas a narrow 2-1 lead.
The Kookaburras were reduced to 8-men for the final six minutes of the match, but 11-man England were unable to thwart the brave Australian defence, which was spearheaded by their ever-reliable leader, Mark Knowles.
In the other men’s semi final, the Indian men’s hockey team squandered eight of the nine penalty corners to suffer a 2-3 defeat at hands of lower-ranked New Zealand.
The Kookaburras will play for a sixth consecutive Commonwealth Games gold medal when they face Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre on Saturday.
LAWN BOWLS
Australia’s Aaron Wilson has claimed the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games’ blue-ribbon men’s singles gold medal in a stunning conclusion to the tournament.
Wilson found himself 5 shots down in the early stages of the decider, 2-7, but really hit his straps and eventually prevailed by seven shots in the first to 21 shoot-out.
The win came after Australia fell agonisingly short of gold in the men’s fours final, losing 13-15 to Scotland on the final end.
Barrie Lester, Brett Wilkie, Nathan Rice and Aron Sherriff led for the majority of the match against the world champions before the Scots produced four from a tense final end to topple the Aussies.
RUGBY SEVENS – WOMEN
The Australian women’s rugby sevens side has finished unbeaten on day one of their Commonwealth Games campaign following wins over Wales and England at Robina Stadium. Australia were made to work against England in front of the sell-out crowd but eventually showed their class to pull away to a 29-12 scoreline. Earlier on Friday, Australia swept aside Wales 34-5 with Emma Tonegato and Charlotte Caslick starring in the rout. Ellia Green stole the show against England though after she split the English defence and sprinted away to score in front of the jubilant crowd. Australia will now play Fiji at 7:21pm AEST on Saturday to decide seeds for the semi-finals.
SHOOTING
Laetisha Scanlan celebrated her 28th birthday today with another Commonwealth Games gold medal in the women’s trap shooting. Scanlan, who was defending the title she won four years ago in Glasgow, hit 38 of her 50 targets to finish atop the dais in a new Games record, edging out Northern Ireland’s Kirsty Barr in a nail-biting finish.
In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol final, Sergei Evglevski surged to a silver medal with a score of 28, two shots behind champion Anish Bhanwala from India, who set a new Games record score of 30. Evglevski’s teammate, David Chapman — who registered the old Games record of 23 for the event in Glasgow four years ago— finished fourth on a score of 15.
Seasoned shooter Robyn Ridley finished a creditable seventh in the women’s 50m rifle 3 position final at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre on Friday, shooting a score of 398.9. Indian Tejaswini Sawant won gold with a Games record score of 457.9, Sawant’s compatriot Anjum Moudgil claimed silver, while Scotland’s Seonaid McIntosh secured bronze.
SQUASH
The highlight for Australian squash fans today was certainly Donna Urquhart and Cameron Pilley in the mixed doubles semi final, and their defeat of English champions Alison Waters and Daryl Selby. Urquhart and her doubles partner and cousin Pilley fought back from one set down against England and will now move into the gold medal match against India.
In the women’s squash doubles, the magnificent pairing of Donna Urquhart and Rachael Grinham booked their spot in the semifinals after a win against Welsh doubles partners Tesni Evans and Deon Saffrey. The win was an incredible comeback, after a loss in their first set and a heart-stopping second. The Australians were behind 9-1 in the second set, but recovered to win 9-11, 11-10, 11-3.
Zac Alexander and David Palmer felt the pressure in their squash doubles quarterfinal today but managed to secure a win, defeating New Zealand’s Paul Coll and Campbell Grayson in two sets 11-9, 6-11, 11-7 in 64 minutes.
Ryan Cuskelly and Cameron Pilley ended their winning streak today, losing to England duo Daryl Selby and Adrian Waller 9-11, 11-8, 11-10 in a 75-minute showdown.
TABLE TENNIS
Melissa Tapper claimed victory, with a 3-1 win against fellow Australian class 10 athlete Andrea McDonnell (6-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4) and now has the chance to become the first Australian to win Commonwealth Games gold in table tennis. Tapper made history in Rio becoming the first Australian to compete at both the Paralympic and Olympic Games, and tomorrow she will aim to write a new page in the history book.
Australia is out of contention for a men’s doubles and a women’s individual medal, with Heming Hu and Xin Yan losing their match to India’s Hameet Desai and Sanil Shankar Shetty 3-1 (8-11, 12-10, 10-12, 8-11), and Jian Lang Fey defeated by Canada’s Mo Zhang 4-0 (2-11, 2-11, 5-11, 6-11).
WRESTLING
Australia has again missed out on medals on day two of the wrestling competition.There were two representatives for the host nation, Mehrdad Tarash in his third Commonwealth Games in the men’s 65 kg class and first timer, Nick Verryenne in the 97kg division.
Verryenne was a late inclusion in the team after the withdrawal of original selection Rob Whittaker due to UFC commitments and won one of three fights on the day.
Mehrdad Tarash lost his first round bout, ending his Commonwealth Games campaign.
