AQUATICS
Lauren Smith made history in the pool today when she became the first Scot in history to win a medal in the synchronised swimming competition. Lauren was lying in third after yesterday’s technical performance and put in a superb performance in her free routine to take the bronze. Cameron Brodie and Andy Mayor made it through to the 100m butterfly semi-finals, with Andy progressing to tomorrow night’s final.
Kerry Buchan and Kathryn Johnstone qualified for the evening semi-final of the 100m breaststroke, where they finished 13th and tenth respectively, while Corrie Scott narrowly missed out on a place in the semi.
Craig McNally also made it through to the evening semi-finals of the 100m backstroke where he finished 12th. Lucy Ellis and Sara Hamilton raced in the 50m freestyle semi-finals but both missed out on a place in tomorrow evening’s final. Lewis Smith finished eighth in the 400m IM final, while Megan Gilchrist finished in the 800m freestyle final.
4x200m freestyle relay silver medallist Jak Scott is first in the pool tomorrow in the 50m freestyle, before Sean Fraser competes in his favoured 100m freestyle S8. Megan Gilchrist and Caitlin McClatchey race the 400m freestyle before Lewis Smith swims the 200m IM. The final heat of the day is the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Andy Mayor will compete in the final of the 100m butterfly after progressing through the semi final today.
ATHLETICS
Steph Twell eased comfortably into the final of the 1,500m today. She qualified as fourth fastest in her heat in a time of 4.10.35, over three seconds quicker than the winner of the second heat.
She said, “I was really glad to get onto the track and needed the heat to get my legs going close to race pace and blow away the cobwebs. I could see coming up the home straight that we were well clear so I could take it easy.
“I arrived in the village on Sunday morning so I am settled and the training facility at the village is great. Being able to start your warm-up straight away and get on the track in ten minutes is great.”
Steve Cram is tipping Twell for a medal. Twell responded by saying, “I have got to stay on top of my game but I am honoured for him to say that and hopefully I can just do my best. If the race is run in the right way then a medal is definitely a possibility.”
Roger Skedd got underway in the decathlon and goes into day two lying in 14th position.
Lee McConnell gave a confident performance again tonight in the semi final of the women’s 400m, finishing second in her heat in a time of 52.27. She’ll now have to run from lane nine but doesn’t think that will affect her race too much in tomorrow’s final.
She said, “I didn’t want to waste energy by pushing for the win so I have just got to take the lane I am given. I’m just going to do the same tomorrow but push harder off the final bend and go for it. There are eight girls going for three medals so I’ll go with my race plan and hope that’s enough.”
The action heats up for the Scots tomorrow with a busy night of finals. McConnell and Twell are joined by Mark Dry and Andy Frost in the hammer, Freya Murray runs in the 10,000m and Chris Baillie has the 110m hurdles heats in the morning and will be aiming for a final spot in the evening’s race.
BADMINTON
Team Scotland’s badminton players went out of the mixed team event at the XIX Commonwealth Games today (Thursday) after a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Auld Enemy in Delhi.
They will now turn their attention to the individual events which start on Saturday, where third seed Susan Egelstaff will aim to defend the women’s singles bronze medal she won four years ago in Melbourne.
BOXING
Only one of Scotland’s boxers was in action today as light flyweight Iain Butcher lost out to European Champion Paddy Barnes (Northern Ireland’s) 4-2. However Iain made Barnes work hard for the win and made a very creditable Commonwealth Games debut.
Tomorrow Josh Taylor and Aston Brown will compete in their second round ties in the afternoon session. Josh fights Ghanaian Benjamin Lamptey at 1400hrs local time before Aston faces Canada’s Custio Clayton at 1530hrs local time. Super Heavyweight Ross Henderson also enters the ring for the first time as he takes on Alexay Mukhin of Australia at 2215hrs local time.
CYCLING
Evan Oliphant qualified for Friday’s scratch race final by finishing eleventh in his heat on Thursday evening, but there was disappointment for James McCallum, the bronze medallist in this event four years ago, and David Lines.
With placings of 13th and 14th in their respective heats, both riders narrowly failed to progress.
Earlier in the day Kate Cullen finished 8th in the women’s scratch race.
Ross Edgar, meanwhile, had a tough quarter-final in the sprint competition, meeting Australia’s Shane Perkins. Perkins beat Edgar in two straight rides on his way to winning the gold medal.
As well as Oliphant in the scratch final, Friday’s final session in the velodrome will see John Paul, Chris Pritchard and Callum Skinner in action in the men’s team sprint.
GYMNASTICS
Jordan Lipton was in action today on the uneven bars, her final event of the competition. She gave a strong performance to finish fifth.
Tomorrow it will be the turn of Tori Simpson and Amy Regan to take part in the beam and floor events respectively.
HOCKEY
Scotland’s women recorded their first victory this morning with a 6-1 win over Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). A confident performance saw goals from captain Linda Clement and Nikki Kidd putting them ahead at halftime. Kidd put away another in the second half through a well-taken drag flick; Alison Bell added to her tally from the South African match with two goals and Hollie Cram got her second of the competition in the closing minutes.
T&T broke through Scottish defence in the closing minutes to record their first goal of the competition.
Clement summed up the match saying, “We are pleased to win of course but disappointed with our overall performance. We have a rest day tomorrow before we face Australia and we can’t afford to make mistakes against them.”
The men are targeting a win over Malaysia at 20.30hrs tomorrow to bounce back from their Australian defeat yesterday.
LAWN BOWLS
In the women’s section, the triples had only one match today against Jersey and won 2-0. The women’s pairs stepped out against Papua New Guinea and Niue winning both to keep them in a strong position with two matches remaining.
The men’s pairs have now won seven, lost one, after victories over Swaziland and the Cook Islands today. The men’s triples were lying in sixth position before two tough matches against New Zealand and Australia today. They lost out to the Kiwis but ended on a high with a dramatic sudden-death play-off win over Australia.
RUGBY
Scotland’s 7s squad played their second warm-up match against England this afternoon. It was a much tougher match than their Indian opponents earlier in the week but a great chance to step up preparations step up another gear before the main event next Monday and Tuesday.
Coach Stephen Gemmell said, “Today was very worthwhile. We needed another physical game in the heat. There are one or two little things we need to focus in our next training sessions before we compete on Monday.”
SHOOTING
Tuesday’s bronze medal pair Jen McIntosh and Kay Copland were back on the range today, to compete in the 50m 3P singles event. Jen qualified for the afternoon shoot-off where she finished in fifth place. Kay finished 11th in the morning session.
It will be a busy day at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range tomorrow with seven athletes taking aim. The clay-target trap pairs, sees the first Delhi outings for John MacDonald and Ossie Mclean for the men, with Shona Marshall and Linda Pearson in the women’s competition. Alan Ritchie will compete in the 10m air pistol event, while Neil Stirton and Jonathan Hammond shoot in the 50m 3P pairs.
SQUASH
Alan Clyne is through to the final of the men’s classic plate event after beating Colin Ramsara of Trinidad and Tobago. He will face Malaysian Ivan Yuen on the show court on Friday at 1345hrs after Yuen beat Harry Leitch in the other semi final. Scotland also have a finalist in the men’s singles consolation plate after Chris Small beat Zambian Ray Simbule in the semi final. Small will play Kelvin Ndhlovu on the show court at 1300hrs on Friday.
In the women’s singles consolation plate Lisa Aitken lost out in the semi final to Malaysian Sharon Wee whilst Frania Gillen-Buchert withdrew from the women’s singles classic plate.
TABLE TENNIS
Scotland’s men contested the minor team placings today and in a challenging match against Sri Lanka they won 3-0. Tomorrow they will face Canada 0930hrs local time to determine the 9th /10th place in the competition.
TENNIS
On Thursday Colin Fleming and Joss Rae, Team Scotland’s only remaining tennis players, pulled off the shock of the tournament when they beat home favourites and second seeds Leander Paes and Sania Mirza to reach the semi finals of the mixed doubles in the inaugural tennis event at the Commonwealth Games.
In the last match on the packed 5000 capacity Centre Court, Fleming and Rae silenced the partisan home crowd, winning 6-4 6-4 and in the process guaranteeing themselves at least two more matches and a chance of a medal.
They play England’s fourth seeds Ross Hutchins and Anna Smith in the semi finals on Friday in the second match in the evening session on Centre Court, which is due to start at 1700hrs. The winners of the match will progress to the final to contest the gold and silver medals whilst the runners up will face a bronze medal play-off against the other losing semi finalists.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Graeme Kane was the first of Scotland’s weightlifters to compete in Delhi today in the 77kg category and finished in ninth position.
Going out with a lift of 118kg in the snatch, he had a no-lift with his second weight of 122kg. In the clean and jerk, Kane began at 143kg with a good lift and moved up to 147kg for his second lift but was unsuccessful on both attempts and ended the competition with a combined total of 261.
Kane reflected on his performance saying, “I am very disappointed, I just haven’t been on form for the past week or so. I have been feeling a bit flat and I just didn’t feel strong. I’ll enjoy the rest of my time here though and support the boys in their competitions in the next few days.”
Coach Charles Hamilton praised Kane’s first Games competition and effort. He said, “Graeme has found it tough out here but he did the best he could. I have worked with him since the age of 11 so I know what he is capable of and this has been a good experience for him which I am sure he’ll build on.”
Peter Kirkbride lifts on Saturday in the 94kg and Tommy Yule goes for a medal on Sunday in the 105kg.
“Both guys have trained well and are doing big stuff in the gym so we’re hoping they can do well and chase for medals,” concluded Hamilton.
WRESTLING
In woman’s freestyle wrestling Fiona Robertson (48kg), Jayne Clason (55kg) Tracey Connell (63kg) and Sarah Jones (72kg) were all in action this morning. Tracey went out in the first round whilst the other three girls got to the semi-finals and lost and ended up competing for bronze medals through the repechage system. Unfortunately none of them were able to capitalise on their second chance and Sarah and Jayne finished fourth.
Tomorrow Fiona’s twin sister, Donna (51kg), will compete along with Kathryn Marsh (59kg), and Ashlea McManus (67kg). The competition starts at 0900hrs local time, and a win will take each wrestler through to the finals at 1600hrs local time.