DAILY REVIEW – FRIDAY 6 APRIL

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IMAGE|| MICHAEL WILLSON

What a day for Australia at the Commonwealth Games.

We won nine gold, five silver and seven bronze for a total of 21 medals.

It pushed us well past England now with a total of 36 medals and 14 gold well ahead of England’s 18 medals including nine gold.

 

Gold medallists (9)

Cycling Men’s Keirin Matt GLAETZER

Cycling Women’s Sprint Stephanie MORTON

Swimming Men’s 100m Backstroke Mitch LARKIN

Swimming Men’s 200m Freestyle Kyle CHALMERS

Swimming Men’s 400m Individual Medley Clyde LEWIS

Swimming Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay Kyle CHALMERS Jack CARTWRIGHT

Cameron MCEVOY James MAGNUSSEN

Swimming Men’s S9 100m Freestyle Timothy DISKEN

Swimming Women’s 100m butterfly Emma MCKEON

Weightlifting Women’s 58kg Tia-Clair TOOMEY

 

Silver medallists (5)

Swimming Women’s 3000m Individual Pursuit Rebecca WIASAK

Swimming Men’s 100m Backstroke Bradley WOODWARD

Swimming Men’s 200m Freestyle Mack HORTON

Swimming Women’s 100m Butterfly Madeline GROVES

Swimming Women’s S9 100m Backstroke Ellie COLE

 

Bronze medallists (7)

Artistics Gymnastics Women’s Team Georgia-Rose BROWN Alexandra EADE Georgia GODWIN Rianna MIZZEN Emily WHITEHEAD

Cycling Women’s 3000m Individual Pursuit Annette EDMONDSON

Cycling Women’s Sprint Kaarle MCCULLOCH

Swimming Women’s 100m Butterfly Brianna THROSSELL

Swimming Men’s S9 100m Freestyle Brenden HALL

Swimming Women’s 50m Breaststroke Leiston PICKETT

Swimming Women’s S9 100m Backstroke Ashleigh MCCONNELL

 

BADMINTON

Australia is guaranteed a spot in the quarter finals of the badminton team event after beating Uganda 4-1 in their second pool match. They started with a comfortable win in the mixed doubles with Leanne Choo and Ross Smith; Wendy Chen blitzed the women’s singles while Anthony Joe narrowly lost in the men’s. The Aussies took an unassailable 3-1 lead through the men’s doubles combination of Rob Middleton and Ross Smith. The icing was put on the cake by experienced women’s doubles duo, Leanne Choo and Renuga Veeran.

 

BASKETBALL MEN

The Boomers started their GC2018 campaign in emphatic fashion against their Canadian opponents with a dominant 40-point victory. Nathan Sobey and Angus Brandt (10 points, 11 rebounds each) both secured double-doubles as the Aussies dominated the glass and their fourth-seeded opponents. Daniel Kickert led all scorers with 14 points.

BASKETBALL WOMEN

The Opals ran rampant in their opening match in Townsville, demolishing the fourth seed Mozambique by 60 points. Elizabeth Cambage was the chief destroyer, dropping 24 points in just under 19 minutes on the floor. Experienced duo Belinda Snell and Jenna O’Hea also played their part with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

 

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

The Australians finally hit the court for the first time to a huge roar from the big home crowd. Top ranked Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar came into this tournament with high hopes and from the outset they delivered. The combinations of desperate defence and lethal power were relentless. The Cyprus girls tried hard but they were simply outclassed in straights sets by this very impressive Australian pairing. Final score 21-14, 21-9.

The Australian men had a long wait to get their Beach Volleyball campaign underway with a 9:30pm match against Fiji and they started with a bang!

The opening point looked like a real statement from the man they call “McHuge”, with Chris McHugh delivering a fully loaded power cross-court winner to get on the scoreboard.

The Aussie pair of McHugh and Damien Schumann continued to go to the power game and had little trouble taking the first set 21-9.

McHugh/Schumann took it up another level in the second set knowing they had Fiji on the ropes. There were a few exciting rallies to pump up the packed Coolangatta stadium but McHugh and Schumann simply had too much class closing out the match in straight sets 21-9, 21-9.

 

BOXING

21-year-old Campbell Somerville has made a startling Commonwealth Games debut, winning his first fight against Granada’s Joshua Redhead in the men’s 75kg category. Showing more speed and reflex skill than Redhead, the boxer from Melbourne received perfect scores of 10 from each of the five judges. Somerville will progress through to the next stage, and will wait to hear who will take on his next bout after today’s competition closes.

 

CYCLING TRACK
  • Australia won its 100th gold in Commonwealth Games cycling after Stephanie Morton won the final of the women’s Sprint ahead of New Zealand’s Natasha Hansen in second and compatriot Kaarle McCullouch in third.
  • Matthew Glaetzer successfully defended his Commonwealth title in the men’s Keirin final. The 25-year-old, who took bronze in the Team Sprint, beat Welshman Lewis Oliva and New Zealand’s Edward Dawkins to the finish line.
  • Commonwealth Games debutant Rebecca Wiasak won silver in the women’s individual pursuit, finishing behind the 2016 Olympic Team Pursuit champion, Katie Archibald from Scotland. Annette Edmondson took the bronze.
GYMNASTICS ARTISTIC

Australia’s Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) Team have come away with the bronze medal at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, in front of a deafening crowd at Coomera Indoor Sports Centre this evening.

Australia went into the final rotation sitting in fourth position behind Canada, England and Wales, and they knew they had to deliver to make that podium – so that they did.  With the highest set of execution scores on Vault out of any team that competed today – 9.000, 8.800, 9.100 and 9.050 – the Aussies jumped ahead of Wales with a combined score of 157.450 to secure the bronze medal.

In more good news, Australia secured a full suite of finalists for the WAG individual finals.

 

LAWN BOWLS

The Australian Jackaroos continued to fire on all cylinders on day two of the GC2018 Lawn Bowls competition, recording nine victories for 10 starts, while their one blemish came in the vision-impaired mixed pairs discipline by a slender shot, 16-17, after trailing by double figures at the midway point of the encounter.

Capping off Australia’s day on the greens was reigning world pairs champions Brett Wilkie and Aaron Wilson mounting a monumental comeback to survive a sectional round scare against Guernsey in the final session, turning a nine shot deficit into a three shot victory to retain their unblemished record and hopes of topping their pool.

 

NETBALL

The Australian Diamonds have continued their dominant form, with a 55-goal victory over Barbados, 79-24.

Three shooters did not miss a goal, with the team registering 96% accuracy overall. Goal shooter Caitlin Thwaites shot at 100% for the second game in a row.

All twelve Diamonds took to court once again, with pinpoint accuracy and slick defence.

Australia starting seven – GS: Caitlin Thwaites, GA: Susan Pettitt, WA: Liz Watson, C: Kim Ravaillion, WD: Gabi Simpson, GD: Jo Weston, GK: April Brandley

Quarter by Quarter Score:

Q1: AUS 23 –  BAR 6

Q2: AUS 39 – BAR 12

Q3: AUS 61 – BAR 17

Q4: AUS 79 –  BAR 24

Shooting Statistics:

Caitlin Thwaites 24/24 (100%)

Susan Pettitt 15/15 (100%)

Caitlin Bassett 23/26 (88%)

Stephanie Wood 17/17 (100%)

 

SQUASH

It was another action packed day for Australia’s squash athletes, with six athletes competing across five matches. In an unlucky draw, Australians Donna Urquhart and Christine Nunn faced off against each other, with the Australian champion Urquhart defeating Nunn in a heart-stopping five game match of 59 minutes.

In other results Cameron Pilley defeated Jamaica’s Lewis Walters in three straight games, Tamika Saxby was knocked out of the singles competition but Joshna Chinappa from India, as well as Rex Hedrick who was defeated by Scotland’s Alan Clyne in three games. Ryan Cuskelly withdrew from his match against Malaysia’s Nafiizwan, citing a adductor injury, but will aim to make his comeback in time for the squash doubles tournament to commence.

 

SWIMMING

Australia’s second night in the pool has seen a slew of 14 medals added to our tally. Friday night began with Leiston Pickett winning the bronze medal in the women’s 50m Breaststroke, adding another achievement to her two gold medals in this event from Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014. Australia took out the gold and silver medals in the men’s 200m Freestyle with Kyle Chalmers claiming the gold and making his mark on the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games after missing out on the 2017 FINA World Championships due to a medical condition. Mack Horton secured himself the silver medal while teammate Alexander Graham finished in sixth place.

 

Ellie Cole and Ashleigh McConnell swam the women’s S9 100m Backstroke, coming away with the silver and bronze medals, respectively. McConnell also carved out a new personal best (PB) with 1:15.93. Madeleine Scott also competed in this event, coming in fourth. The men’s S9 100m Freestyle saw Timothy Disken win the gold medal and Brenden Hall taking bronze for Australia. Clyde Lewis left nothing in the tank as he tore up the pool to secure his gold medal in the men’s 400m Individual Medley, smashing his PB by three seconds with a time of 4:13.12. Mitch Larkin and Bradley Woodward continued to add to Australia’s medal tally with gold in the men’s 100m Backstroke awarded to Larkin and silver to Woodward. Benjamin Treffers finished the race in sixth place.

 

To finish off the night, the Aussie queens of the pool provided an historic clean sweep in the women’s 100m Butterfly, with Emma McKeon claiming her second gold of the Games, Madeline Groves winning silver and Brianna Throssell rounding out the sweep with the bronze. Adding to that, the men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay team swam hard to take home gold late Friday night. Cameron McEvoy, James Magnussen, Jack Cartwright and Chalmers successfully defended Australia’s Glasgow 2014 title and achieved a games record of 3:12.72.

 

TABLE TENNIS

The Women’s Team are on track to defend their Glasgow 2014 bronze or go higher, having won their quarterfinal today against Wales. While the Australian side did not get off to a good start, losing their first game 4-11, it was dual Olympian/Paralympian Melissa Tapper who won her game in three straight sets (11-8,11-4,11-3) when our side started to pick up momentum. Player-coach Miao Miao and Jian Fang Lay lead the charge in match three, to win all three sets in the doubles game, cementing Australia’s winning streak across the match. Miao followed up with another game win 3-2 to claim victory.

The men’s side was equally victorious in their Team event today, winning their match against Sri Lanka 3-0. Hemming Hu started Australia off well stealing all three game points, while Xin Yan won his game 3-2, coming up from behind having lost the first two games. Like the women’s match, it was the doubles featuring Hu and David Powell that got the win across the line, winning their game 4-1.

WEIGHTLIFTING

CrossFit world champion Tia-Clair Toomey became the first Australian female weightlifter in 12 years to win gold when she lifted a combined 201kg in the day’s final session. Toomey beat out Canadian Tali Darsigny by just one kilo to claim the medal. Earlier in the day Tegan Napper finished eighth in the women’s 53 kg division while Brandon Wakeling secured a seventh-placed standing in the men’s 69 kg division.

 

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