Team Scotland’s women led the way on day eight of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games with three medals; taking the total to 35 (7 gold, 13 silver, 15 bronze).
Flagbearer Eilidh Doyle, repeated her silver medal success of Glasgow 2014, with a superb run in the Women’s 400m Hurdles Final; finishing second in 54.80. Having led Team Scotland into the Carrara Stadium eight days ago, Eilidh returned to claim another medal in what is already proving to be a successful season.
At the Broadbeach Bowls Club, the Women’s Triples claimed a silver medal after a hard-fought match against Australia. Earlier in the day, Seonaid McIntosh followed in the footsteps of her mother Shirley, and sister Jen by winning Shooting bronze in the Women’s 50m Rifle Prone.
Elsewhere, Team Scotland’s Netballers repeated their ninth-place finish from Glasgow 2014 with a 50-48 win over Barbados in overtime, while Kirsty Gilmour progressed to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Singles Badminton competition with a confident 2-0 victory over the English number one, Chloe Birch.
For detailed reports see the individual sport features for Athletics, Lawn Bowls and Shooting.
Badminton
Scotland’s number one, Kirsty Gilmour faced her English counterpart, Chloe Birch today in the Women’s Singles Round of 16. The first game was tight from start to finish, with Kirsty prevailing 22-20. Her experience and class told in the second game as she ran out 21-12 winner to take the match 2-0.
Afterwards Kirsty said: “I was really up for that. I wanted to hit the ground running, be sharp but also work out a few kinks. It was a really good challenge; Chloe is such a fighter and she never gives you an easy match, so I really had to take it to her and I worked out my game plan well.
In the Women’s Doubles, Julie McPherson and Eleanor O’Donnell faced the tough English pair Lauren Smith and Sarah Walker. The Scots made their opponents work hard throughout the match, but couldn’t find a way past them, eventually losing out 2-0.
Alex Dunn and Adam Hall progress to the Men’s Doubles quarter-finals after a convincing 2-0 win over Barbados. In the other Men’s Doubles match, Martin Campbell and Patrick McHugh faced the Canadian pair of Jason Ho-Shue and Nyl Yakura. The Canadians took the first game, and despite a spirited fightback from the Scots in the second, they went on to win the match 2-0. In the Mixed Doubles, Alex Dunn and Eleanor O’Donnell’s campaign was brought to an end by the eighth seeded Malaysian pair.
Tomorrow, Kirsty returns in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Singles against Ruthvikka Gadde of India in the morning session, which starts at 11:00hrs (02:00hrs UK time). Later in the session, Alex Dunn and Adam Hall face Malaysian duo Shem V Goh and Wee Kiong Tan.
Boxing
Two Team Scotland Boxers take to the ring tomorrow for a place in the gold medal bouts. Reece McFadden faces Brendan Irvine of Northern Ireland at 13:47hrs (04:47hrs UK time); before John Docherty takes on Cameroon’s Dieudonne Wilfred Seyi Ntsengue at 20:47hrs (11:47hrs UK time).
Cycling – Mountain Bike Cross Country
In the Women’s Mountain Bike Cross-Country, Team Scotland’s Isla Short shone beyond her 60th place (UCI) and pre-race ranking of eighth, to finish fifth in a competitive field in her first Commonwealth Games. The 21-year-old from Peebles crossed the line +3:32 behind race-winning top seed and world number five, Annie Last (ENG), completing the six-lap, 27.6km course in 1:21:34.
Grant Ferguson (ranked 39th in the world) followed Short in the Men’s gruelling 32.2km course but was unable to improve on his fifth-place finish at Glasgow 2014, coming in ninth, +4:53 behind 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medal-winning New Zealander, Samuel Gaze, who finished superbly to take gold.
Diving
The Diving competition of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games continued at the Optus Aquatics Centre this evening with James Heatly and Gemma McArthur in action in the finals of the 3m springboard and 10m platform respectively.
Heatly fought hard to land all his dives and after a superb Reverse 1½ Somersaults 3½ Twists Pike, which scored him 87.50 points, the 20-year old from Edinburgh moved up to the bronze medal position.
Finishing his programme with the Forward 2½ Somersaults 2 Twists Pike, Heatly didn’t quite land it as well as in the previous round but finished an admirable fifth with 420.30 points, just shy of his PB.
After the final Heatly said: “I had to really fight to get through to the final of this event. I didn’t get much sleep last night and I did struggle this morning in the prelim. After two rounds I wasn’t even in the top twelve. So, with that in mind, I don’t consider coming fifth a loss, I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve done.
“My priority is to now focus on tomorrow’s 10m synchro event. Lucas used yesterday’s 1m to get his competition started and get rid of any nerves. He did really well and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do here.
Gemma McArthur completed her competition finishing 12th for the 10m Platform. Starting confidently with the Back 2½ Somersaults 1½ Twists Pike, McArthur faltered in the last two rounds and ended with 263.05 points, well below her best. Afterwards she said,
“It’s such a shame I missed a few dives but overall I’m pretty pleased at how I held my nerves throughout the competition. It’s been amazing to dive in amongst world class athletes and I’m going to try my best to improve in training, become more consistent and develop those harder dives so I can compete with the girls at the top.”
Olympic finalist and World Championships silver medalist, Grace Reid, begins her Commonwealth Games programme tomorrow, starting with the 1m springboard. Diving prelims start at 10:01hrs (01:01hrs UK time); finals start at 19:01hrs (10:01hrs UK time).
Hockey
Team Scotland’s Women Hockey finished their competition in seventh place today following a 4-2 win in their classification game against Malaysia.
Thanks to three goals in the first half from Millie Brown and Amy Brodie (two), the women went into the second half in a strong and confident position. Despite a green card for Sarah Robertson at 39 minutes, and yellow cards for Alison Howie at 48 minutes and Amy Brodie at 58 minutes, Lucy Lanigan added one more goal to the total before full time.
Speaking after the game, double goal scorer Amy Brodie said: “We wanted to finish as high as we could and go out with a win. Being honest, seventh or eighth isn’t where we wanted to be but we’re happy to finish on a high.
“We showed great character today. We had to fight for that win and I’m proud of how we performed. Throughout the tournament we’ve played high-quality hockey – it’s amazing for us to come out here and have the chance to play against these world-class teams.”
Team Scotland’s men will face Malaysia tomorrow in the battle for a fifth-place finish. The action will start at 16:15hrs (07:14hrs UK time).
Netball
Team Scotland’s Netballers equalled their ninth-place finish at Glasgow 2014 with a 50-48 win over Barbados on Australia’s Gold Coast. In a topsy-turvy match, Lynsey Gallagher continued to keep the Scots within touching distance down the stretch and as time expired Gallagher scored to tie the game at 39-39, forcing overtime.
Talking after the match, the sharp-shooter said: “There was a little bit of a flash back to that Malawi game, but I was just like, breathe, set your shot, you do this all of the time in training so just sink it and then the girls did the rest really.”
Squash
Lisa Aitken and Kevin Moran faced Jenny Duncalf and Adrian Waller in their Round of 16 match. The English pair had the best of the first game, eventually taking the match 2-0. Men’s Doubles pair Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban continued their fine form, with a 2-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago pair Patrick Mandela and Kale Wilson. They’ll now face Mohammad Syafiq Kamal and Yow Eain NG of Malaysia tomorrow at 21:00 (12:00hrs UK time) on the Show Court for a place in the semi-finals.
After their match today, Greg said: “It’s all gone to plan, keen to get onto the show court soon. We knew that if we played our game we would be okay. We don’t take any opponent lightly. We had to make sure we were doing the right things, like playing the right shots at the right time and I thought we did well.”
Table Tennis
Gavin Rumgay faced a tough match against England’s Liam Pitchford at Oxenford Studios. After taking one game each at the start of the match, Liam pressed on taking the next three unanswered to win 4-1. In the Men’s Doubles, Rumgay and Craig Howieson faced English pair David McBeath and Samuel Walker. The Scots duo pushed each game to the end but lost out 3-0 to the experienced English pair.
Reflecting on the matches, Gavin said: “My performance was okay. All week I’ve battled with the conditions, none of the pro tours have any humidity at all. Meaning that when you try to play your aggressive way, you can’t, which makes it a very different style of game.”
Wrestling
Team Scotland’s Wrestlers opened their Gold Coast campaign on Thursday morning at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre, with Ross Connolly and Viorel Etko contesting the 57kg weight category and Alex Gladkov in action in the 74kg event.
With all three wrestlers given extremely tough draws it was always going to prove an uphill battle to get on the podium, as Etko and Gladkov did in Glasgow, the trio all bowing out in their opening bout. Unfortunately for Etko his Nigerian opponent, who was tipped for gold, lost out in the semi-final after a poor tactical showing when clearly in front, costing the Scot a place in the Repechage and a chance to repeat his bronze medal feat.
Coming towards the twilight of his career Etko was very composed post event, saying: “Of course, it wasn’t the result I wanted but I gave it my all and sometimes it’s out of your control. We wrestle athletes who are in the best shape of their lives and sport can be cruel. We’ll be 100% behind Joe now tomorrow – we’ll make as much noise as we can and hopefully he’ll have the best tournament of his life.
Joe Hendry goes in the Men’s Freestyle 97kg category from 10.30hrs (01:30hrs UK time) on Friday.