AQUATICS – SWIMMING
Fourteen Team Scotland swimmers competed in the pool today as action got underway at Dr SP Mukherkjee Swimming Complex. In the morning session Caitlin McClatchey was first up in the 200m freestyle, but missed out on the final after finishing 17th.
Louise Pate qualified for the 50m butterfly semi-finals, where she finished 11th. David Carry and Robbie Renwick qualified for the 400m final where David went on to finish third, to collect Scotland’s first medal of the Games. Having led for much of the race, Robbie Renwick tired in the last 100 to finish 6th. Both Carry and Renwick will be back in action tomorrow in the 200m freestyle.
Hannah Miley qualified second fastest in the 200m individual medley, her less favoured event, before coming in 5th in the final. Cameron Brodie, Lewis Smith and Andy Mayor competed in the 200m butterfly, but failed to reach the final after coming 11th, 13th and 15th respectively. Kerry Buchan, Kathryn Johnstone and Corrie Scott all qualified for the semi-finals of the 50m breaststroke. Kathryn gave a confident performance and will be Scotland’s sole representative in tomorrow evening’s final. The men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team finished fifth, in both the heats and finals to round off a solid opening day for Scotland’s swimmers and for the second Games in a row were the first sport on the medal table.
ARCHERY
Recurve
In the men’s qualification round of the competition, James Lang, Simon Needlam and Mark Forrester all got off to a steady start to finish 19th, 25th and 27threspectively. All three qualify for Tuesday’s individual elimination round. In the woman’s event Emma Downie finished 19th and also qualified for Tuesdays individual elimination round starting at 0900hrs local time.
Compound
In the woman’s compound qualification round the women gave very strong performances, Claudine Jennings set a Scottish record score (provisional) to rank 3rd, whilst Tracey McGowan scored a personal best to rank 5th, with Susan Maitland ranking 26th. In the men’s compound qualification round, Alistair Whittingham ranked 16th, Kyle Dodds 22nd and Tim Keppie 37th. All compound archers made it through to the individual eliminations rounds on Tuesday starting at 1400.
BADMINTON
Team Scotland’s badminton players got off to a dream start in the mixed team event, beating Barbados 5-0. Only Susan Egelstaff, who won bronze in the women’s singles in Melbourne four years ago, has previous experience of Commonwealth Games competition and she made short work of her opponent Latoya Watson, winning 21-3 21-3. There were also wins for six of the other seven members of the badminton squad with only Emma Mason rested on the first day of competition.
Tomorrow the badminton team will face Wales at 1900hrs local time, who are in the neighbouring block in the Athletes’ Village, in a tie which could potentially decide which of the sides progress to the quarter finals.
BOXING
Scotland’s boxers had trouble weighing-in today after faulty scales delayed proceedings until tomorrow. See full report on the website. Following the draw none of the Scots are in action until Wednesday.
GYMNASTICS
Ryan McKee competed in all six pieces of apparatus apparatus in the men’s individual qualification event. His best score was for the floor where he ranked 16th to finish 25th overall and just miss out on qualification for the individual all around competition. He will now be first reserve. He also missed out on qualification for the individual apparatus finals.
On Tuesday it is the women’s turn to compete in the team event which will also see them post scores to qualify for the individual all around and individual apparatus events. The session starts at 1630hrs local time.
HOCKEY
The men’s and women’s hockey teams are also back in action, with two difficult games, the men facing Pakistan in the morning, and the women, fresh from their heroic 1-1 draw with the mighty India on day one, taking on South Africa in the evening.
LAWN BOWLS
Scotland pairs and triples teams in the lawn bowls started their campaigns today with mixed results. The opening session in the midday heat saw the men’s triple team of Willie Wood, Wayne Hogg and David Peacock lose to Malta and the women’s pairing of Margaret Letham and Caroline Brown losing narrowly on a tie-break to Wales.
Wood and his team mates then faced South Africa in the second round and had to go home winless after a tough match. They’ll have two more matches tomorrow against Brunei, who they beat in a warm-up match a few days ago, followed by Niue who they’ll be looking to overpower.
Letham and Brown bounced back in their second game and defeated Guernsey. Tomorrow they play Brunei followed by the relatively unknown Swaziland. Their triples team also got a win on the board in their match tonight against Namibia. Michelle Cooper, Lorraine Malloy and Lynn Stein have two matches tomorrow against the strong sides of New Zealand then Australia.
Darren Burnett and Neil Spears wrapped up the day with a victory over Botswana and return tomorrow to take on Niue and Papa New Guinea which should be comfortable matches for them if all goes to plan.
The triples and pairs lawn bowls competitions continue today with another packed schedule of eight matches.
SQUASH
In the men’s singles of the squash competition Alan Clyne and Harry Leitch won their first round matches whilst Lyall Paterson received a walkover following the withdrawal of Zambia’s Patrick Chifunda. Unfortunately all three were knocked out of the singles in the second round and they will now compete in the men’s singles plate events tomorrow. Chris Small lost in the first round and also goes in the plate.
In the women’s singles, Frania Gillen-Buchert won her first round match but went out at the next stage of the competition, whilst Lisa Aitken who had a bye in the first round went out in the second. Both will now contest the plate events for women’s singles.
TABLE TENNIS
Scotland’s men’s team gave a good solid performance on the opening day of competition to beat Uganda 3-0 in the first group game. On Tuesday they will play Nigeria, the top seed in the group at 1830hrs local time.
TENNIS
Tennis was making its debut at the Games and Mhairi Brown created a piece of history for herself as she became the first Scottish player to compete in Commonwealth Games competition, an experience made all the more special for the fact she played on Centre Court. However, it was a baptism of fire for the 28 year old doubles specialist from Edinburgh as she went out 6-2 6-1 to sixth seeded Australian Olivia Rogowska in scorching hot conditions.
Later in the day she was back in action in the mixed doubles with Jamie Murray and the pair beat Uganda’s Duncan Mugabe and Jalia Nanfuka 6-2 6-4 to reach the quarter finals. Colin Fleming and Joss Rae also reached the quarters after coming back from a set down to beat the tricky Australian pair Matt Ebden and Sally Peers 3-6 6-3 6-1.
On Tuesday the men’s singles will get underway at 1000hrs local time with Jamie Murray 3rd on Centre Court against Rodney Carey, Bahamas, whilst Colin Fleming will play Chris Lewis, Wales second on court 4. He will be followed by Mhairi Brown and Joss Rae in the women’s doubles who play the Lambert sisters from Bermuda. In the evening session starting ay 1700hrs local time Murray and Brown will be second on court 1 playing top seeded Australians Hanley and Rodionova in the quarter finals.
PREVIEW
CYCLING
The Scots will be in action on the first day of the cycling competition on Tuesday with a number of new riders in the squad getting their first taste of a Commonwealth Games. Jenny Davies and Charline Joiner ride the women’s 500m time trial, with Callum Skinner in the men’s kilometre. Skinner is confident of a personal best, while for Davies and Joiner the time trial will provide valuable race practice on the Delhi track ahead of their main event, the team sprint, on Wednesday.
SHOOTING
Shooters Jennifer McIntosh and Kay Copland will challenge in the small bore rifle 50m 3 positions pairs event starting at 1230hrs local time at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.