On the penultimate day of competition, Team Scotland brought its medal tally to 43 thanks to bronze medals from 1500m runner Jake Wightman, and Women’s Singles Badminton player Kirsty Gilmour.
With a total of nine gold, 13 silver, and 21 bronze medals, and with more medal events due to be contested, Team Scotland is celebrating its largest ever overseas medal haul.
A round-up of today’s events is below. For full details on today’s medals, please see the feature pieces on Athletics and Badminton.
Tomorrow will see the conclusion of all events for Team Scotland, including the classification stages for Rugby 7s, Men’s Marathon, Women’s T54 Marathon, the Basketball bronze medal match, and Squash Men’s Doubles bronze medal match.
Shooting
Team Scotland’s shooters Ian Shaw, Sandy Walker and Neil Stirton were back in action today on the last day of the shooting competition at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Six-time Commonwealth Games shooter, Ian Shaw, finished fourth in the Queen’s Prize Individual Final Day 3, beating the Games record and recording his best-ever individual Commonwealth Games performance in the individual event.
Sandy Walker also competed in the event and finished 13th, after securing bronze in the Pairs equivalent event earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, Team Scotland’s Neil Stirton competed in Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions qualification this morning and placed 11th, missing out on a spot in the final
The competition drew to a close with Scotland winning six shooting medals.
Basketball
Team Scotland’s Basketball players made history this morning, becoming the first Scottish team to compete in a Commonwealth Games semi-final – where they were drawn against Australia. The top-ten world ranked side got off to a flying start and never looked back, winning 103-46.
Scotland will now turn their focus to Sunday’s bronze medal match against New Zealand, after they were stunned by Canada on the buzzer in a thrilling semi-final.
Speaking after the game, Australian native and Scotland Head Coach Rob Beveridge said:
“We managed to get all of the guys into the game today and they had a wonderful experience out there. There were nerves in the first half but these guys are all going to be so much better for today’s experience.”
“We are aiming for a medal and there was no question how difficult this was going to be in today’s game and from day one. At the end of the day, Scotland is in a medal match tomorrow and we’re all looking forward to that.”
Diving
Lucas Thomson surpassed his own expectations finishing fifth in the 10m platform final on the last night of diving competition.
The 16-year old had a disappointing morning at the prelims, but following rest and a good chat with coach, Jen Leeming, he made lots of improvements and enjoyed the final, putting in a strong series of dives across all six rounds and amassing a points score of 402.80.
Afterwards he spoke of his delight and said: “I’m so chuffed with that performance; it was a big step up from this morning. I managed to hit all of my dives pretty well and was consistent throughout tonight’s competition. It couldn’t have gone much better for me.
“The whole Commonwealth Games experience has been great, I’ve been trying to soak up as much of the experience and atmosphere as possible and take as much away from here as I can. It’s been a huge thing coming all the way to Australia for my first Commonwealth Games and the organisers have put on such a good show and made the event so special.”
Grace Reid was left disappointed at being unable to follow up last night’s gold medal with another in the 3m springboard final. The 21-year old didn’t have the best of starts and was unable to land her first two dives. Despite pulling back, in a very competitive final Reid couldn’t make up the scores and finished on 282.00 points.
Team Scotland won eleven medals from Aquatics (nine swimming, two diving including one gold in each).
Rugby 7s
Team Scotland’s Rugby Sevens missed out on the chance to medal at the Games after they lost to World Rugby Series leaders and Commonwealth champions, South Africa, in the final game of their first day of competition.
The team defeated Papua New Guinea (27-0) and Malaysia (41-0) but, with only the top-ranked team from each group advancing to the last four, Scotland’s last match against South Africa was decisive, with ‘Blitzbokke’ winning 26-5 to end the rugby team’s hopes of securing Team Scotland’s first team medal.
Team Scotland Rugby Sevens will now face Wales at 10:37hrs (01:37hrs UK time) in the Men’s Placing 5-8 rounds, with the resulting 5/6th and 7/8th placing rounds at 13:11hrs and 13:33hrs respectively (04:11hrs and 04:33hrs UK time).
Squash
Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban faced Australian duo and Games fifth seeds Zac Alexander and David Palmer in the Men’s Doubles. In a tough match and with the home crowd roaring, the Scots couldn’t apply the level of pressure on their opponents that had seen them through the previous rounds, and the Australian duo edged a tight first game and followed up with a second to take the match 2-0.
Afterwards Alan said: “It’s not what we wanted but it’s what we’re going to have. So we’re definitely going to fight with everything we’ve got and will be going hard for bronze tomorrow.”
Commenting on today’s opponents, Greg added: “They’ve got experience and David is obviously a former world No.1 so they’re a formidable force. They’ve also been practising doubles for a while during the singles event. We always knew they were going to be tough and they had the home crowd.”
Clyne and Lobban will return to the show court tomorrow for the bronze medal match against England’s Declan James and James Willstrop.
Cycling – Road Race
Neah Evans ended her debut Commonwealth Games with an impressive 8th placing in the Women’s Road Race at Currumbin Beachfront this morning.
Starting with a team of five, Eileen Roe took her turn on the front with just under two laps to go, helping Katie Archibald and Evans to stay in the thick of the pack with 25km left to race. A sprint across the finish line saw Chloe Hosking of Australia grabbing gold, Georgia Williams of New Zealand with silver and Wales Danielle Rowe riding into bronze.
Evans finished eight seconds behind the winner while Katie Archibald crossed in 23rd.
Women’s Road Race results:
Neah Evans, 8th, 3:02:26
Katie Archibald, 23rd. 3:03:38
Eileen Roe, DNF
Isla Short, DNF
Louise Haston, DNF
The Men’s Road Race followed shortly after, beginning in ideal racing conditions with a cloudy sky and slight drizzle – but it wasn’t long before the sun came out and heated things up for the competitors.
Following a rocky start after being caught up in a crash, Grant Ferguson was able race his way back into the pack to support teammate Mark Stewart who ended the race in 17th place, just 57 seconds behind the Australian gold medallist, Steele Von Hoff, Welshman Jonathan Mould in second place, and South African Clint Hendricks.
Men’s Road Race team results:
Mark Stewart, 17th, 3:57:58
Grant Ferguson, 35th, 3:59:35
Kyle Gordon, DNF