Day one roundup
What a cracking first day. It rained medals – with England taking six for themselves and therefore leading the medal table. Max Whitlock got the ball rolling in the artistic gymnastics, Sophie Thornhill notched a win in the blind and visually impaired sprint before attention turned to the pool, where Aimee Wilmot, James Wilby, Eleanor Robinson and Thomas Hamer all notched medals. It was also a great opening day for the hosts, who earned four golds. Malaysia sit third, with two weightlifting golds.
Australia win women's 4x100m swimming gold!
The Aussies wrap up day one with a world-record time of 3:30.05 in the freestyle relay in the pool. Canada take silver while England earn bronze.
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Back to the pool for the climax, and the final medal of day one is up for grabs, in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay. The noise is ratcheting up through the gears as the final 50m approaches the first-leg swimmers.
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England win men's 200m swimming gold!
James Wilby times his run perfectly to take breaststroke gold ahead of Murdock and Matt Wilson. A brilliant time by the 24-year-old from Loughborough. Andrew Willis has to settle for fourth. “I knew it was make-or-break, so I just went for it,” Wilby says.
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The men’s 200m breaststroke is in full swing, with Scotland’s Murdoch in the driving seat ...
What’s left today? In terms of medals, we have just the swimming. I say just, but there is the 200m breaststroke final, with England’s James Wilby and Andrew Willis in action. Scotland have a couple in the heats too, with Ross Murdoch posting the quickest time in the heats. Australia’s Matt Wilson will fancy his chances too. There’s also the 4x100m women’s freestyle relay before we wrap up day one.
Away from the medals, there is plenty of squash going on today on the Gold Coast and the three B’s, as such: badminton, basketball and bowls.
New Zealand win men's cycling team sprint gold!
The defending champions prevail in the velodrome, another Commonwealth title, with England taking silver (their fourth medal, I think, in the velodrome on day one) and Australia earning that bronze. The Kiwis knew they could rely on the favourites to bring home their first medal of the Games.
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Australia win women's cycling team sprint gold!
Another one in the bag for the host nation. McCulloch and Morton seal a Games-record time of 32.488. Neighbours New Zealand snatch second. In the men’s equivalent, they secure bronze to add another one to the tally.
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In the bronze-medal team sprint event, it’s England who prosper against Wales at the velodrome. Katy Marchant and Lauren Bate clinch it with a time of 33.893. There are still a handful of medals to come, too.
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Now for some heart-warming medal ceremonies. It’s been some first day for England, who top the medal table.
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A slice of history: Billy Le Poullain has become the first boxer to represent Guernsey at any Games but the 22-year-old carpenter, from Alderney, was defeated by Zaib Gul, of Pakistan. Birmingham 2022 is next for him.
Telepathy from the six-times Olympic champion:
Men’s team pursuit final next, Aus v Eng. Aussie firm favourites, I reckon the World record could be at risk here... 3:49?.. 🤔
— Chris Hoy (@chrishoy) April 5, 2018
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Thomas Hamer speaks after his big win. “It’s amazing to be against some of the top athletes in swimming,” he says, “and I think I am doing Ben Proud’s head in at the moment because I am asking him questions about everything.” He seems like a great chap.
England win 50m swimming gold!
Wow. The 16-year-old, Eleanor Robinson, is a Commonwealth Games champion, with a great race in the S7 50m butterfly. “This is not about winning a medal, for me, it is about winning a battle against my own challenges and doubts,” Robinson says. Brilliant.
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Australia win men's 4000m team pursuit gold!
A historic moment in track cycling in front of a home crowd in Brisbane. A strong ride earns a world-record time of 3:49.804, smashing Great Britain’s Rio scalp. The race is on ahead of Toyko 2020, then. England can only look on at the wild celebrations, taking silver in the velodrome. The Aussies will be celebrating for a while yet ...
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In the velodrome, Australia, the favourites, are being put under pressure by England in the men’s 4000m team pursuit final. Touch and go ...
England win 200m swimming gold!
Teen Thomas Hamer has set a world-record time of 1:55:88 in the freestyle to claim gold, an upgrade on the silver he earned in Glasgow four years ago. Australia’s Liam Schluter and Dan Fox have to settle for second and third respectively.
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Back to the velodrome, where it’s Canada v Wales in the 4000m men’s team pursuit ...
Canada win 200m swimming gold!
We have a new Commonwealth champion, the 17-year-old Taylor Ruck. Australia bag silver and bronze, with Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeown finishing second and third respectively.
Aimee Wilmott speaks after that big win in the water, over familiar foe Hannah Miley. “I’m over the moon,” she says. “If ever there’s a time I had it in me, it was now. After all the struggles I’ve been through, with my ribs and having knee surgery, I just thought this could be my time. It was a battle between me and Hannah, and the crowd loved it.”
Next up is the women’s 200m freestyle final in the pool. Elsewhere, Neil Fachie has just picked up his cycling gold, a first Scotland at these Games.
Australia win women's cycling gold!
Moments later, Australia bag another, this time in the 4000m team pursuit. New Zealand settle for silver, as the Aussies set a Games record of 4:15.214. How about that?
Australia win men's 400m swimming gold!
The Olympic champion, Mack Horton – who was the fastest qualifier – becomes the Commonwealth freestyle champion. It’s an Australian one-two, with Jack McLoughlin taking silver on the podium. England’s James Guy earns a brilliant bronze. “It was a hard race, good Lord,” Guy says, panting. The 22-year-old, from Bury, looks and sounds like he needs a big lie down.
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Back at the velodrome, Canada clinch bronze in the women’s 3000m team pursuit. England have to settle for fourth. At the pool, it’s the men’s 400m men’s freestyle, with James Guy up against two Australians, who can smell a gold medal ...
England win artistic gymnastics gold!
Three quick-fire golds for England. A wonderful display by Max Whitlock on the pommel horse seals top spot. What a start!
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England win 400m swimming medley gold!
Aimee Wilmott edges out Hannah Miley, of Scotland, in pursuit of gold in the 400m individual medley. A lightning final 50m clinched victory. “It was an amazing race, that brought out the best in us,” says Miley.
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England win cycling sprint gold!
Sophie Thornhill picks up her third Games gold medal. A couple of errors by Australia allow the 22-year-old to scoop B&VI sprint victory.
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A wonderful selection of images from day one:
Scotland win cycling time-trial gold!
Aberdeen’s Neil Fachie, and his pilot, Matt Rotherham, win the B&VI 1000m time trial with a 1:00.065. Wales’ James Ball earns silver. A fine result for the home nations. “We went stupidly well in Rio a couple of weeks ago,” Fachie says, “and we almost did not do it today but we couldn’t ask for any more than this.”
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In the gymnastics, England were shaking their head at the judges’s score of 14.150 for Nile Wilson’s spectacular floor routine. They appeal it but their decision is upheld, so he may be left wondering if its enough to qualify. As for Max Whitlock, the double Olympic champion, his routine ought to earn him a place in the individuals’ final, with a 14.800.
Advantage England at the Velodrome, where the first of a remaining 15 medals on day one are up for grabs ... Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott have taken the initiative early on against Gallagher and Janssen, of Australia. It’s a best-of-three here in the B&VI women’s sprint finals.
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More on a disappointing day for the ever-cheery Brownlees:
Marc Austin ended up bagging a bronze medal in the men’s triathlon to earn Scotland’s first of these Games. He was not fully prepared for the medal ceremony, though. He did not bother taking his podium tracksuit with him – afraid he might have looked cocky – so had to borrow Beth Potter’s kit. “His podium kit was half way up his sleeve and half way up his ankles,” she said.
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Do get in touch. “Good luck to Sophie and Helen in the B&VI cycling final,” emails Chris Page. “It would be a feather in para-sport’s cap for them to win England’s first gold in a predominately non-disabled Games.”
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Artistic gymnastics: Nile Wilson wins the domestic high bar war, at least for today, scoring 15.1 over James Hall’s 14.450. Into final placed first and second.
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Coming up: half an hour until the first medal of the day at the Anna Meares Velodrome, when the women’s B&VI sprint gets under way, between England’s Sophie Thornhil land Jessica Gallagher, of Australia. At midday, England duel with New Zealand in search of gold in the men’s team sprint finals.
In the gymnastics, we are fast approaching the fourth rotation but it seems as though it’s England’s to lose, as such. Nile Wilson looks truly pumped, bellowing “come on” after another decent showing, following Courtney Tulloch’s impressive display on the rings.
In the table tennis, India eventually get the better over Wales but it will be a day to remember for Anna Hursey, who helped them to a doubles win. Chloe Thomas was beaten in the singles and that sealed a win, but they they were made to work for it.
After two rotations, England top the table in the artistic gymnastics. Four more to come, with the parallel bars up next for James Hall, Dominick Cunningham, Courtney Tulloch, Nile Wilson and Max Whitlock.
Wales beat India in the table tennis doubles! Anna Hursey has a win on debut, after surviving three match points, the 11-year-old and Charlotte Carey go and seize victory themselves. As it’s a team event, there are still two singles’ matches (three events have been played) to go, but this is just brilliant to witness.
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Back to the gymnastics, where, after the first of six rotations, it is England who top the standings after a brilliant Nile Wilson routine on the rings.
An 11-year-old Anna Hursey – the youngest competitor on the Gold Coast – has just won her first game (and leading in the second) alongside Charlotte Carey in the women’s table tennis team doubles. One of her opponents is triple her age ... amazing stuff out on table two. For Wales’ Hursey, who was born in Swansea but lives in Cardiff, these are the Easter holidays.
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Things are looking rosy for England in the racket sports. In the badminton, Team GB Olympic bronze medallists Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis breezed past Uganda 4-0 in their opening mixed fixture. In table tennis, England have got the better of Ghana and Vanuatu.
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England (including Max Whitlock), Scotland and Canada will do battle shortly for the men’s team and individual artistic gymnastics gold at the indoor sports centre. That’s the next medal on the menu, before we get the ball rolling with the rest of the cycling, and then swimming.
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Benjamin Proud was disqualified in the 50m butterfly this morning, adjudged to have started before signal. Fair to say he’s absolutely gutted. “I really wanted to come into the competition to retain both my titles and to have that opportunity taken away in the first heat is heart breaking,” the 23-year-old, who holds the Games’ record from Glasgow 2014, said.
So, at this very early stage, on the first day of action in Australia, the first medals have been dished out. India sit top of the table as such, with an early gold and silver, while Sri Lanka have notched two bronze medals, both in the weightlifting. Australia picked up a silver in the mixed team relay triathlon. As for Taylah Robertson, well ...
There are a staggering 15 medals to come today alone – thirsty work. Some good news for England in the shape of the men’s team pursuit cycling team, who will compete in the final around 11am (BST). Kian Emadi, Ethan Hayer, Oliver Wood and Charlie Tanfield are guaranteed a medal. In the netball, England walloped Scotland 74-28. The women, meanwhile, have secured a place in the bronze medal race. Heady days.
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A little earlier it was confirmed that Australia’s Sally Pearson would not be playing any part in these Games:
To those just joining us, hello. It’s 4.30pm in Australia, with the wind blowing in off the Coral Sea. Our next chunk of red-hot action looks likely to be coming at the Anne Meares Velodrome. There will be plenty of medals up for grabs there later this morning/evening, including the men’s and women’s team sprints, plus the 4000m team pursuit finals.
And there may have been disappointment for the Brownlee brothers earlier (sporting brothers are good fun) but Alistair finished 10th, with Jonny seventh. There was, however, good news for England’s Jessica Learmonth, who took silver in the women’s final. In the men’s final, it was Henri Schoeman of South Africa who took gold, but a healthy finish for Scotland’s Marc Austin, who grabbed bronze.
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Righto that’s me done for the afternoon, I’ll hand you over to my colleague Ben Fisher who’ll take you into the night session.
There’s plenty still to come tonight, including a whole heap of medals up for grabs on the cycling track and in the pool.
- From 7.00pm the men’s and women’s cycling will kick into gear (sports metaphors sort of stop working when you’re actually talking about the relevant sport, don’t they?) with finals in the 4000m team pursuit and sprint. The team pursuit promises to be quite something. Australia’s men won the last two world titles but finished second to England at the 2016 Olympics.
- Also from 7.00pm there’s a host of finals in the pool, including the 4x100m relay where Australia’s Cate and Bronte Campbell will try to add to their 2016 Rio gold. Scot Hannah Miley will be the one to watch in the women’s 400m individual medley.
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India wins weightlifting gold
Let’s pop back over to the women’s weightlifting, where India’s Chanu Saikhom Mirabai has just been casually lifting double her body weight to take out gold in the 48kg event.
She made six lifts, each of them a Commonwealth Games record and the total lift was 26kg more than the silver medallist, Mauritian Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa.
As one of the Australian broadcast commentators quipped, her competitors “simply weren’t good enough to stay with her or even compete”.
Dinusha Gomes took out the bronze medal for Sri Lanka.
More from England’s Brownlee brothers, who as we mentioned have failed to win a middle in the men’s triathlon.
Two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee fell away at the start of the running leg and ended up finishing 10th. He’s just been interviewed post-race and blamed the result on a lack of fitness. He said he “hadn’t done enough to be fit enough on the run”.
“I knew I would’ve struggled on the run,” he said after the race. “I wanted to pull that gap out as much as possible to give (his brother) Jonny the best chance and look out for him.
“I’m just really happy I got through the race, that’s fine. I’m happy with that.
“I knew it was going to be tough when you haven’t actually run that fast for more than a minute or two at a time and, when you’ve got to do it for 15, it’s not going to go very well for you is it
“I would have preferred my calf to be good two months ago, if it was and I was able to train in that time, I reckon I would have been able to win that race.”
Both brothers have struggled with injury this year but a dejected Jonny said he’d expected to a stronger showing.
“It was pretty terrible today. From start to finish I didn’t feel great, I had ups and downs,” he said.
“Coming in, the situation (an injury) I was in was in the start of January, so I missed a lot of training but I thought I would do better than this.
“I dived in and felt pretty weak on the swim and I started riding and I found it really hard to catch up. Then I’m not really one of the strongest on the bike but I didn’t feel great today.
“I started running and I thought, ‘Oh dear, I’m in trouble here’, but I gave it everything, I ran as well as I could.”
South Africa’s Henri Schoeman won gold in the event after breaking away from the pack on the running leg. Jonny, the younger of the Brownlee brothers, said he’d tried to make a run to pull away from the rest of the pack but couldn’t maintain the gap.
“My first thought was ‘I wish I was fit’, I would’ve ran with him.
“I couldn’t go with him so I was thinking about the medals, and how I could leave these guys behind.
“When they came past I had given it my all by then.”
The women’s 4000m team pursuit qualifiers have just wrapped up and Australia have finished fastest. The Aussie women took out silver at last year’s world championships and will be favourites to take gold ahead of New Zealand in the gold medal race tonight.
There were plenty of fist-pumps coming from the NZ women after the just beat out the Canadians but they’ll be up against it after finishing a good five seconds slower than the Australians.
The men’s qualifiers in the same event are just about to kick-off, and it should be a cracker. Australia’s men won the last two world titles but finished second behind England at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
There are a total of six gold medals on offer at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane tonight.
Quite a shock out of the men’s triathlon a little earlier, where the Brownlee brothers crashed out without winning a medal.
Two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee fell out of contention at the start of the run, eventually coming 10th, while Jonny finished seventh in one of the brothers’ worst days.
They had hoped to repeat the one-two finish from Glasgow 2014. Alistair, 29, exited the second transition in the lead but faded to come home one minute six seconds behind the eventual winner, South Africa’s Henri Schoeman. Australian Jake Birtwhistle took out silver while Scot Marc Austin took out the bronze.
He said afterwards that his training in the lead up to the event had been “perfect”. “My race today was pretty great, I knew that I really needed to work hard but also save my energy,” he said. “Everything went according to plan and I knew that I couldn’t have given anything else. I finished in a heap.
“It’s pretty amazing to come away with third after training for so long. I’ve been pretty disappointed lately of my performances as I just haven’t been delivering the standard I know I’m capable of.”
The Brownlees have a second chance to win a medal when they compete in the mixed team relay later in the week.
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Holy heck, two new world records in the space of a few moments in the women’s B&VI sprint cycling.
The Australians, Jessica Gallacher and Madison Janssen, went first in the qualifying round and finished in 10.954, a new world record. Then, in one of those ‘anything you can do’ type moments, England’s Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott came through and blew them out of the water with 10.609.
For the uninitiated, the B&VI is a para event for cyclists with a visual impairment, using a tandem bicycle with a cyclist on the front as a pilot. After the race, Gallacher said the sport involved a huge amount of trust
“If you cant trust the person steering the bike you’re not going to get the best out of the bike and each other, [but we have a] wonderful relationship,” she said. It should make for a cracking final later on tonight.
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The cycling is beginning and we’ll get to it in just a minute, but first an update on the Royals.
The Games organisers have defended Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall against accusations that she looked “bored” at last night’s opening ceremony, Reuters reports. Pictures of Camilla thumbing through a program in the VIP box between her husband Prince Charles and Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull were widely circulated on social media, prompting criticism of the 70-year-old.
But Commonwealth Games Federation president Louise Martin has said the Duchess was exhausted, rather than bored. “She was jet-lagged, she’d just got off the plane in the morning,” Martin said at a media briefing on Thursday. She did full duty right through and the only time she got a break was when she sat in the car from Brisbane down to here. Then she got 20 minutes to change before she went to another reception. When you’re back to back like that, coming off a long-haul flight... and she literally hates flying. She really wanted to go to sleep.”
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The women’s 46kg weightlifting final is just beginning. Australia’s Alyce Stephenson has the home crowd behind her, but the current world champion, India’s Chanu Saikhom Mirabai, is the overwhelming favourite to win gold.
We could see another Commonwealth weightlifting record here, too, after Malaysia’s Muhammad Azroy Hazalwa set one in the men’s event this morning. Mirabai’s previous personal best is well above the existing record.
Welsh lifter Hannah Powell was first cab off the rank and has just handled her first three lifts without any trouble, making it to 56kg in the snatch. Stephenson then made a 59kg lift before Scotland’s Lisa Tobias failed on her first two attempts at a 60kg lift before finally nailing it on the third and final attempt. Phew!
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South Africa wins gold in men’s triathlon
South Africa’s Henri Schoeman has just taken out the gold medal in the men’s triathlon. An ecstatic Schoeman – who won bronze in Rio two years ago – gave a one-fingered salute and pumped his fists as he headed to the line. He finished ahead of Australia’s Jake Birtwhistle – who wins the host nation’s first medal – in second and Scotland’s Marc Austin in third.
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Olympic champion Sally Pearson withdraws from games
As we’ve already mentioned, the big news out of day one is that Australia’s Sally Pearson has withdrawn from the games. The champion hurdler is one of the face of the games and carried the Queen’s baton on its final leg at Wednesday night’s opening ceremony. She revealed in a press conference that she’d known the full extent of the injury two days ago, but decided to keep it quiet until after the curtain-raiser.
Mike Hytner’s got the full story:
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Welcome to day one
G’day! The big talking point so far today is that Australia’s Sally Pearson, the 2012 Olympic gold medal winning hurdler, has pulled out of the Games after failing to recover from her ongoing Achilles injury. In a press conference a little while ago Pearson said she was “absolutely gutted” to have to withdraw, but that the decision was made in the interests of her longer-term fitness. She had been in the running, so to speak, for a third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold.
We’ve also had the first gold medallist of the games. Bermuda’s Flora Duffy won the women’s triathlon 43 seconds ahead of England’s Jessica Learmonth, giving the island territory an early edge in the medal tally. It was Bermuda’s first Commonwealth gold since Auckland in 1990, and Duffy, a two-time world champion, said that she’d felt a lot of expectation coming into the race. “There’s a 50-foot poster of me in town. Being an introvert it gets a bit much, but it’s great to inspire,” she said after the race.
The men’s triathlon is currently up and running (and swimming and cycling) and we’ll bring you more on the action there in just a bit.
Malaysia’s Muhammad Azroy Hazalwa set the first Commonwealth record at the 2018 games in the weightlifting, with a winning total of 261kg in the men’s 56kg class.
Elsewhere the six-day swimming program kicked off with heats in the pool.
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus qualified fastest for the 200m women’s freestyle, while Scotland’s two-time 400m individual medley champion Hannah Miley was a second faster than the rest of the field in qualifying for that event.
Seventeen-year-old Titmus has been rated a breakout hope for Australia by none other than Australia’s retired Olympic hero Ian Thorpe, and qualified ahead of the likes of England’s Eleanor Faulkner and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak.
Oleksiak became a household name in Canada after winning gold at the Rio Olympics as a 16-year-old. Now 17, she raced on Wednesday despite announcing that her grandmother had died as last night’s opening ceremony came to a close.
We’ll bring you coverage in the finals for those two events plus a whole bunch more in the pool a little bit later on.
Speaking of the opening ceremony, you can catch up on Jonathan Howcroft’s coverage of the event here. He rated it “not terrible”.
Coming up
Here are your medal must-watches for the rest of the day. All times are local – the Gold Coast is GMT +10:00 and EST +14:00.
- From 7.00pm the men’s and women’s cycling will kick into gear (sports metaphors sort of stop working when you’re actually talking about the relevant sport, don’t they?) with finals in the 4000m team pursuit and sprint. The team pursuit promises to be quite something. Australia’s men won the last two world titles but finished second to England at the 2016 Olympics.
- Also from 7.00pm there’s a host of finals in the pool, including the 4x100m relay where Australia’s Cate and Bronte Campbell will try to add to their 2016 Rio gold.
- We mentioned that the men’s triathlon is on now. We’ll bring you the action there as it unfolds.
- There are also medals up for grabs this afternoon in the men’s and women’s weightlifting events and men’s artistic gymnastics.
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