Elsewhere for Team Scotland on day seven…
BOXING
In the final day of quarter-finals at the SECC, Stephen Lavelle (91kg) became the latest Scottish boxer to guarantee a medal with a strong win in the afternoon session. Lavelle overcame Indian opponent Amripreet Singh to join team-mates Josh Taylor, Charlie Flynn and Reece McFadden in the Boxing semi-finals. Joe Ham and Aqeel Ahmed both came up against strong opponents, and despite some really composed performances they both lost out.
Thursday is a day off for all the boxers before the semi-finals take place on Friday.
DIVING
James Heatly finished 9th overall in the 1m Springboard final with another personal best in the event, as the diving programme of the XX Commonwealth Games kicked off at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.
With his proud parents and his Grandfather, Sir Peter, watching in the stands, if Heatly was nervous he didn’t show it. The 17-year old performed well, growing in confidence with every dive. Repeating his dive programme from this morning, he upped his game improving his individual scores for all but one of his dives to finish on an overall score of 345.60.
He saved the best until last posting a score of over 65 points for his Inward 2½ Somersault, Tucked, a new dive for Heatly which he was particularly pleased about. He said, “I’m amazed by my score. I PB’d this morning and I’ve done it again tonight by another 30 points or so, it’s great. I’ve introduced a new dive into my programme and it’s really pleasing to see a score in the 60s for it. I don’t usually get that to be honest with you.
“The atmosphere is absolutely amazing. I’ve never been in front of a crowd as loud or as supportive as the one here tonight. Not only did it give me the extra 10% that so many of the athletes have spoken about, it gave me an extra 20%!”
Heatly returns tomorrow to compete in his favoured event, the 3m Springboard.
BADMINTON
On day seven of the competition schedule Team Scotland’s Badminton Singles players Kirsty Gilmour and Kieran Merrilees got off to a great start by securing their places in the last 16 of the singles events at Glasgow 2014.
Merrilees, the eighth seed, who defeated Victor Odera Munga 21-6 21-7 said: “It was good to get another one in the individual event. My coach is making sure I’m still doing hard training off the court. Just to make sure I’m prepared when the tougher matches come.”
Women’s second seed Gilmour, who had a first-round bye, defeated Australia’s Verdet Kessler 21-14 21-5 and also earned herself a place in the top 16 tomorrow with Yeldi Louison of Mauritius. Commenting on her win Gilmore said: “She gave me quite a good fight; I don’t think the scores reflect the rallies. It was a really good game for me and I played just how I wanted.”
In the Mixed Doubles Imogen Bankier and Robert Blair came back from 0-1 down (15-21) to win the match 21-14 21-14. After the competition Bankier said: “We knew he (Wei Shem Goh) was a very good player, we saw that in the team event. We watched them play Men’s Doubles and she isn’t a bad player either, but the mixed combination we didn’t really know what to expect and it was a little trickier than we expected. It took us a little while to adapt to his speed, I think, I think he is quite a special player. I think we did well in the end to turn it around and try and nullify his strength as much as we could. It calmed our nerves a little also after the first round.”
Blair added: “I think we knew, looking at the draw, this was tough. We knew looking at the draw, you know the Malaysians are world class players and could go on to win the tournament. They still have tremendous qualities, and we thought physically this was going to be our hardest game until the later stages. I hope they get easier after that!”
The afternoon session continued with Men’s Doubles pairing also winning their game (21-11 21-7) against the Maldives pairing Rasheed and Sharafuddeen. In the evening session Bankier and Gilmore took to the court for their second games of the day against the English pairing of Adcock and Smith. The Scottish duo put up a great fight, coming back from a 0-1 defeat in the first game (13-21) and winning the second 21 -17. However after a close game, some great rally’s and fantastic shots the pair were unlucky and lost the final game of the evening 18 -21.
LAWN BOWLS
Scotland’s Para Open Triples B6/B7/B8 team are competing for the host nation’s third bowls medal of the Glasgow Games when they face England in the Bronze medal match at Kelvingrove tomorrow. This afternoon the team of Billy Allan, Michael Simpson and Kevin Wallace lost in the semi-finals to New Zealand 13-9.
Scotland is also through to the Men’s Fours and Singles quarter-finals, but home interest ended in the women’s event after the Triples were beaten 21-12 in the quarter finals by South Africa. Scotland’s women’s Pairs did not progress beyond the group stages.
NETBALL
In Netball, the girls faced Northern Ireland in the final pool match of the Games. In a close match, that swung towards both sides the girls lost out 37-32. In the final Game of the competition, Scotland will face Trinidad & Tobago today to decide 9th & 10th spot.
SQUASH
The doubles main draw starts tomorrow with Scotland well represented. The Men’s Doubles round of 16 features both Scotland pairings; Alan Clyne and Harry Leitch, together with Greg Lobban and Stuart Crawford. Both pairs were winners of their groups.
Clyne is back in action in the Mixed Doubles with Frania Gillen-Buchert for the last round of the pool event, although the pair has already done enough to gain qualification for the 16-strong main draw. Kevin Moran and Alex Clark complete the Scottish line up in the Mixed Doubles event.
Photo Credit: Duncan McEwan