Louise Lands Historic Rhythmic Silver - Day Nine Round Up

August 7, 2022

Louise Christie made history at Arena Birmingham by picking up silver for her Ribbon apparatus routine – the best ever result for Scotland in Rhythmic Gymnastics, and the first medal in the discipline in almost three decades. With a rousing homage to Scotland, Louise had the Arena cheering her on, and she picked up silver with a brilliant 27.55 points, a 1.65 point increase on her qualifying score. Earlier in the day, Louise had competed in the Clubs final where she finished sixth.

Further medals came on the athletics track as Jake Wightman and Laura Muir took bronze, the latter in dramatic fashion. Jake was first up in the Men’s 1500m, adding a second major championship medal just two weeks after claiming World gold in Oregon. He went to the front with around 200m to run, in similar style to his world final, but was passed in the closing stages by 2019 World champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya and eventual winner Oliver Hoare, the Australian taking the title in a new Games record of 3.30:12. There was a personal best time of 3.32:93 for Neil Gourley in 8th, with Josh Kerr finishing 12th.

Laura Muir was looking for her first Commonwealth Games medal to add to her successes at the Olympics, World and European Championships. She ran a well judged race in a Women’s 800m final that saw eventual winner Mary Moraa of Kenya take it out incredibly fast. In the closing stages Laura found herself locked in a battle for bronze with Jamaican Natoya Goule which came down to a single hundredth of a second as the Scot took a medal with a perfectly timed lunge for the line.

In the Men’s Hammer, Gold Coast bronze medallist Mark Dry donned the Scotland vest at a fourth Games to finish 10th, with Chris Bennett two places further back. In the final race of the evening at the Alexander Stadium, Beth Dobbin took 8th in the Women’s 200m in a time of 23.40.

In the lawn bowls Men’s Singles, Iain McLean won bronze after an excellent 21-11 victory over Malaysia’s Fairul Izwan Abd Muin. McLean had lost his semi-final match against Australia’s Aaron Wilson 21-9, who ended up taking gold, which put the Scot into the bronze medal contest. McLean got off to an exceptional start racing into 18-8 lead in the battle for third spot. The Malaysian began clawing back the score line but McLean stepped up to see his opposition off and win in the 20th end to claim the medal in his first Commonwealth Games.

Five Scottish boxers in the semi-finals meant five guaranteed medals and the chance to go for gold in the final. Middleweight Sam Hickey kicked-off proceedings against Englishman Lewis Richardson, and caused an upset for the home crowd with a standing count in round one and knockdown in round two. Sean Lazzerini was up next, and his Light Heavyweight opponent from Tanzania was not quite strong enough to take the close split decision from the Glaswegian, while Light Welterweight Reese Lynch outclassed a Canadian Olympian by unanimous decision. Bantamweight Matty McHale and Welterweight Tyler Jolly performed commendably in their respective contests versus Northern Ireland and Wales, but were both edged out in extremely tight split decisions, and they will collect their hard-earned bronze medals tomorrow.

The Badminton team also tasted success on Saturday, with impressive straight game wins for Adam Hall, Julie MacPherson and Kirsty Gilmour against Malaysian and Indian players in the Mixed Doubles and Women’s Singles competitions. The celebrations were jubilant with all now set to play in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Another evening of Diving in Sandwell Aquatics Centre saw Ross Bettie and James Heatly compete in the Men’s 3m Springboard Final, with Cameron Gammage missing out on qualification by less than one point. Although he improved on his qualification score by 37 points, James was unable to hit a top three finish and ended in fourth place with 460.4 points. Ross came in slightly under his qualification score and ended in eleventh place with 365 points.

Greg Lobban and Rory Stewart are through to the squash men’s doubles semi-finals after a 2-0 victory over Zac Alexander and Ryan Cuskelly of Australia. The opening game was a comprehensive 11-2 win for Scotland, followed up by an 11-8 score line to give Scotland the 2-0 victory. Lobban and Stewart face Adrian Waller and Daryl Selby of England for a place in the final.

In the final day of the wrestling competition Scotland’s Christelle Lemofack reached the bronze medal match in the Women’s 50kg but unfortunately lost out to India’s Pooja Gehlot. Other notable results from the wrestling competition came from Ross Connelly who earned a fifth place in the Men’s 65kg category and Cameron Nicol who earned a seventh place finish in the Men’s 97kg category.

Scotland men’s hockey team finished in ninth place after winning their last game of the Games 7-2 against Ghana.

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