DAILY REVIEW – SATURDAY 7 APRIL

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IMAGE|| MICHAEL WILLSON

Compiled by David Tarbotton

The pool and velodrome again provided the bulk of Australia’s medals on day three of the Games with Australia maintaining the lead on the medal tally with the total at 20 gold, 17 silver, 20 bronze, for a total of 57.  

 

GOLD MEDALS (6)

7-Apr Cycling Women’s 500m Time Trial  Kaarle MCCULLOCH

7-Apr Swimming Men’s SB8 100m Breaststroke Timothy DISKEN   

7-Apr Swimming Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Ariarne TITMUS Emma MCKEON Leah NEALE Brianna THROSSELL

7-Apr Triathlon Mixed team relay Gillian BACKHOUSE Jacob BIRTWHISTLE Ashleigh GENTLE Matthew HAUSER

7-Apr Swimming Women’s 50m Freestyle Cate CAMPBELL   

7-Apr Cycling Men’s 15km Scratch Race Sam WELSFORD

  

SILVER MEDALS (8)

7-Apr Gymnastics Artistic Women’s Individual All-Around Georgia GODWIN

7-Apr Cycling Women’s 500m Time Trial Stephanie MORTON

7-Apr Swimming Men’s 200m Butterfly David MORGAN

7-Apr Swimming Men’s SB8 100m Breaststroke Silver Timothy HODGE

7-Apr Swimming Women’s 100m Backstroke   Emily SEEBOHM

7-Apr Swimming Women’s 50m Freestyle  Bronte CAMPBELL

7-Apr Triathlon Men’s PTWC Silver Nic BEVERIDGE

7-Apr Triathlon Women’s PTWC  Emily TAPP

 

BRONZE MEDALS (7)

7-Apr Swimming Sat, 7 Apr Men’s B&VI Sprint Bronze Brad HENDERSON

7-Apr Swimming at, 7 Apr Men’s Sprint  Jacob SCHMID

7-Apr Swimming Sat, 7 Apr Men’s SB8 100m Breaststroke  Blake COCHRANE

7-Apr Swimming Sat, 7 Apr Women’s SM10 200m Individual Medley  Katherine DOWNIE

7-Apr Triathlon Men’s PTWC Bill CHAFFEY

7-Apr Triathlon Women’s PTWC Lauren PARKER

7-Apr Weightlifting Men’s 77kg Francois ETOUNDI

 

BADMINTON

Australia were defeated 3-0 by Singapore in the quarterfinals of the CG2018 Badminton mixed teams competition. Matthew Chau and Setyana Mapasa were defeated 17-21, 21-18, 16-21 by Terry Hee and Tan Wei Han in the first match, Anthony Jo lost 8-21, 6-21 to Loh Kean Yew, before the men’s doubles duo of Robin Middleton and Ross Smith were defeated 15-21, 14-21, to give Singapore an unassailable 3-0 score

 

BASKETBALL MEN

Things just got interesting. The Australian Boomers have stolen victory from New Zealand and remain undefeated in Commonwealth Games basketball history after a six-point win over the Tall Blacks. Australia trailed at all changes after New Zealand jumped out of the blocks on the back of some strong play from Reuben Te Rangi (22 points), before the Boomers stormed home in the last period thanks to the heroics of Nick Kay (21 points, 4/4 3PT). New Zealand dominated inside and showed they have the talent to push Australia to their very limit in their quest for gold.  

 

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Australia’s Beach Volleyball women were looking to continue their red hot start to this tournament against Grenada. The countdown, the music and the smoke had the crowd pumping but once the smoke cleared the Aussie pair of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar went to work and what a job they did on Grenada in the first set, showing no mercy for 21-2 win. Clancy was simply world class in all facets of the game and well supported by teammate Mariafe Artacho del Solar with the pair showing why they are the team to beat for the gold medal. The first set was over in just 11 minutes, the second was a little more of a contest but took just three minutes longer for a straight sets victory to the Aussies 21-2, 21-11.

 

BOXING

Terry Nickolas has caused an upset to Swaziland’s Tabiso Selby Diamini, winning his round of sixteen in a unanimous decision by judges. He claimed an almost perfect score, achieving 10 out of 10 for all rounds from all judges, except for the last by just one judge. While from the scores, Nickolas made the win look easy, he said competition was getting harder as the tournament progresses. “That was a bit harder than I thought it would be. We got into a bit of a scrap but I landed the cleaner punches,” he said.

Speaking of missing out on both a Commonwealth and Olympic berth over his career, he is thrilled his decision to keep persevering is seeing his dream come to fruition. “I’ve waited for this for nine years. The home crowd lifted me so much and I’m now going to push for that gold medal.”

The Commonwealth Games debutant will now advance in the 69kg category, getting closer and closer to his goal of a medal. Victorian boxer Jack Bowen has fallen one bout short of a quarter finals start at the Commonwealth Games, losing by a split decision by judges in his opener against North Ireland’s Kurt Walker in the 56kg category. Four out of five judges at the bout awarded the score to Walker, despite Bowen laying on multiple blows in their third and final round.

 

CYCLING

Kaarle McCulloch and Sam Welsford added to Australia’s brilliant Commonwealth Games gold medal haul at the Anna Meares velodrome on night three of competition.

McCulloch snatched the gold just 0.036 ahead of teammate Steph Morton in a blistering women’s 500m time trial, while Welsford stormed to a dramatic victory in the men’s 15km scratch race.

Jacob Schmid, beat the man who toppled sprint favourite and World Champion Matthew Glaetzer earlier in the day to claim bronze in the men’s sprint.

Bradley Henderson and Pilot Thomas Clarke picked up the bronze medal in the men’s Tandem Sprint, while Jessica Gallagher and pilot Maddison Janssen finished second in the women’s Tandem 1 B&VI 1000m time trial.

Australia’s three riders – Georgia Baker, Amy Cure and Alex Manly – missed the podium in the women’s 25km points race with Manly the best placed in fourth behind Welsh winner Elinor Barker.

 

GYMNASTICS ARTISTIC

Georgia Godwin was brought tears with relief and happiness when she earned the silver medal in the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) All-Around Final. Godwin came out firing on Vault and Uneven Bars – the two apparatus she nailed in the qualifications – but it was when she got to the Balance Beam where her nerves would really be tested.

 

Fellow Queenslander, Brown also bettered her performance from the qualifications.  Coming into the Final ranked fifth, Brown cleaned up some large balance checks in her Beam routine and performed a near-flawless Floor routine, to give her a total All-Around score of 53.000 and a fourth place finish – just 0.150 off the bronze medal.

 

Earlier in the day Michaels Tone and Mercieca represented Australian in the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG) All-Around Final.  Coming into the Final ranked 11th and 13th respectively, both were looking to improve their rankings from qualifications.

 

LAWN BOWLS

It was a night of mixed emotions for the Australian Jackaroos in the Lawn Bowls competition after they earned passage to two semifinals, but fell short in the remaining two quarterfinals.

 

Australia’s golden girl Karen Murphy was sensationally eliminated from the blue-ribbon women’s singles event and the reigning men’s world pairs champions also bowed out in the quarters, after both were upstaged by teams they defeated in the sectional rounds.

 

HOCKEY MEN

The top-ranked Kookaburras opened their Commonwealth Games title defence with a convincing 4-0 victory over South Africa at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre. The Kookaburras mounted a pressure-filled attack throughout the entire match and it was Trent Mitton (29’, 38’), Jeremy Hayward (42’) and Aaron Kleinschmidt (49’) who took advantage on the scoreboard.

 

HOCKEY WOMEN

The Hockeyroos made it two from two after defeating Commonwealth Games debutants Ghana under lights at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre. The Roos overcame a gallant Ghanaian team to keep their unblemished Commonwealth campaign intact with a 5-0 win.

 

SQUASH

Leading Australian female squash player Donna Urquhart has been knocked out of contention for a singles medal, following a 3-1 defeat from England’s Sarah-Jane Perry. The three-time Commonwealth Games athlete was the underdog throughout the match against the no. 4 seed, rising up in the second game 5-11, but was Perry’s skills shone through finishing off the third and fourth game 11-2, 11-15. “It was tough but the crowd today was amazing. I really wanted to win for the Australian crowd and I have it everything I could. I just had a really though opponent and she played amazingly,” Urquhart said.

It was Australia v England with a similar result today, with Cameron Pilley defeated by rival James Willstrop. Willstrop defeated the Australian 3-2 in a gruelling 87 minute match. While Pilley was up after the first game, Willstrop took charge in the final two games.

Tamika Saxby was the final Australian to compete on the Gold Coast squash courts tonight, and while she won her first match by default after Malaysia pulled out, she too was defeated by Canada’s Samantha Cornett in just 32 minutes. In a close first game, Tamika proved she could put up a fight but ultimately only won the second of four games 11-8.

 

TABLE TENNIS

In an unfortunate turn of events, Australia’s men’s team has been knocked out in the quarterfinal. Facing Nigeria in the afternoon at Oxenford Studios in the Gold Coast, Nigeria’s team proved to be too strong, finishing the Australian side 3-1.

Hemming Hu played the first match, posting two game wins out of five, but for a while, a medal was still in sight when Xin Yan came to play, winning three out of four games. The Nigerian’s posted a three set win in the doubles, but Australia couldn’t fight back in the fourth game of the match, with Xin Yan losing 3-1.

 

TRIATHLON

The Australian team of Gillian Backhouse, Matt Hauer, Jake Birtwistle and Ash Gentle won Australia’s first triathlon gold for 12 years, claiming the mixed teams relay with a convincing win over the powerful English team. Conducted over the sprint distance of a 250m swim, 6.6km bike and 1.5km run, a strong third leg by Gentle was the difference. Earlier in the day Rio 2016 teammates Nic Beveridge (1:03.28) and Bill Chaffey (1:04.13) claimed silver and bronze in the men’s race at Southport, before Emily Tapp (1:12.56) and Lauren Parker (1:13.48) continued their rise in the sport by taking silver and bronze in the women’s race.

 

SWIMMING

The Dolphins continued to rake in the medals on Saturday night, claiming total of nine on night three. The first medals up for grabs were in the men’s 200m Butterfly with David Morgan and Grant Irvine contesting. Morgan swam in for the silver while Irvine narrowly missed the podium. Campbell sisters Cate and Bronte took gold and silver in the women’s 50m Freestyle. Shayna Jack was fourth to touch the wall. Jake Packard and Matt Wilson swam the men’s 100m Breaststroke but were unable to beat the likes of Englishmen Adam Peaty and James Wilby, coming in at fourth and sixth, proving just how hot the competition in the pool has been so far at GC2018. Emily Seebohm set out to defend her 100m Backstroke title after winning the gold in Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014. Unfortunately, she was pipped at the post by Canadian Kylie Masse by 0.03sec and, instead, added the silver medal to her impressive collection. Fellow Dolphins Kaylee McKeown and Hayley Baker finished fourth and sixth.

 

Taylor McKeown was also primed to defend her 200m Breaststroke title. The race did not go to plan with McKeown finishing fifth and Tessa Wallace placing sixth. The men’s SB8 100m Breaststroke saw Australia take a trifecta in the pool for the second night in a row, with Timothy Disken, Timothy Hodge and Blake Cochrane taking gold, silver and bronze on night three. This was Tim “Disko” Disken’s second consecutive gold of GC2018 after taking the top spot on the podium Friday night. Kathrine Downie added a bronze medal to the Aussie tally in the SM10 200m Individual Medley, Paige Leonhardt and Jasmine Greenwood came in fourth and fifth. The final race, the women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay rounded out the night with Australia taking the gold after a stellar swim from Emma McKeon, Brianna Throssell, Leah Neale and Ariarne Titmus. McKeon, coming from a family of Commonwealth medal winners, takes home her third gold medal of GC2018.

 

WEIGHTLIFTING

Francois Etoundi kept the crowd at the Carrara Sports Arena crowd entertained from start to finish in the men’s 77kg division, starting off with a third-place finish in the Snatch portion of the competition and a backflip celebration for good measure. Etoundi tore his bicep on the second lift of the clean and jerk and fought through injury to claim bronze on his final lift of the day. Seen Lee injured her elbow and failed to record a successful lift in the Snatch portion of the women’s 63kg division, ending her day prematurely. Boris Elesin lifted a combined 301kg in the men’s 85 kg competition, finishing ninth and equalling his personal best.

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