I’m off, thanks for joining me today. Here is the report on the athletics, with Martha Kelner report on England’s disappointing day (save Proud) to follow.
Personal highlights for me was Malawi’s dramatic win over Scotland in the women’s basketball and that remarkable men’s 4 x 100m medley relay final, where Australia came roaring back in the final leg to pip England at the wall and take gold.
See you next time. Bye!
Name of the Games Award goes to Nigerian basketball player God’sgift Achiuwa, who was involved earlier as Scotland beat the African nation 66-61 in a thriller to reach the Commonwealth semi-finals. This is the line up for the men’s semi-finals, then.
Austraila v Scotland
New Zealand v Canada
Updated
The final live action of the day six is now over, after Australia beat Scotland 2-0 in their Pool B game. That result means that Australia top the group, and will face India in the semi-finals. New Zealand also progress, while that defeat for Scotland means that they are out.
Wales’s 11-year-old table tennis prodigy, who beat Uganda’s Halima Nambozo in her opening group match, is out of the women’s singles after losing Malaysia’s Li Sian Alice Chang. She’ll have a few memories to take back to school though.
It’s a disappointing day for England, if we’re honest. Ben Proud was of course the highlight with his gold, but Andrew Pozzi never got going in the 110m hurdle final after hitting the first barrier, and Sophie Hitchon – the favourite to win gold in the women’s hammer throw – fouled three times and was disqualified.
There were encouraging displays in the boxing. Luke McCormack, Pat McCormack, Galal Yafai, Peter McGrail, Cheavon Clarke, and Fraser Clarke all moved into their respective semi-finals. The same was true for England in the men’s beach volleyball after Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf saw off Scotland in their quarter-finals.
Updated
I wonder how much Ben Proud’s earlier efforts in winning the men’s 50m freestyle gold (ridiculously that was the only gold that Australia didn’t win today in the pool out of 10 finals) affected that last leg in the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay final. He surely would have had lactic acid in those legs, and Kyle Chalmers is not the man you want chasing you down. Proud is a 50m man and that last 50m would have hurt. Ultimately it told, with Chalmers pipping Proud for the gold.
Caster Semenya wins the women's 1500m final!
Gold for South Africa! In the end, it was easy, Semenya winning by over two-and-a-half seconds with a time of 4:00:71, which is a new personal best!
Beatrice Chepkoech wins the silver for Kenya, and Wales’s Melissa Courtney moves past Australia’s Linden Hall to snatch bronze! Courtney judged that to perfection! Semenya looks calm and shakes the hand of each of her rivals, with the exception of Jessica Judd, who needed to be carried off the track from exhaustion.
Updated
Semenya gets into her stride on the back straight of the final lap! Surely she’ll kick on now for the gold …
Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech leads after two laps, Semenya is nestled back in fifth place, just on the outside of the pack. Australia’s Linden Hall is second. Two laps to go.
And we’re off!
Semenya and co have now been waiting on the track for about five minutes, as Australian officials scramble to get the gun working again. This surely isn’t good for the athletes as temperatures drop for the final race of this evening. Semenya is of course mainly an 800m/400m runner and this is a fairly new race for her. Other contenders for the gold like Wales’s Melissa Courtney, Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech and Scottish pair Stephanie Twell and Eilish McColgan will want to go out hard to try and build a lead before Semenya’s final two laps.
It’s stopped raining at the Carrara Stadium, but there are still some puddles out on the track as Caster Semenya and the rest of the field in the women’s 1500m final. The athletes are on the line, but the electronic starting gun isn’t working!
Updated
Australia win gold in the men's 4 x 100m medley relay final!
The final swimming race of the Games, and it’s an absolutely stunning finish! England had just over a half-second lead over Australia going into the final leg with Ben Proud anchoring the race, but he couldn’t hold off Kyle Chalmers – the Olympic 100m freestyle champion in Rio – who swam 47.25 – to help break the Commonwealth Games record in this event. There was just nine-hundreths of a second between Chalmers and Proud at the wall, but the Australian got there first to send the home crowd bananas. Hats off to the Aussies, that was a magnificent comeback and Chalmers really used the crowd’s energy to his advantage. South Africa took bronze, and Scotland had a brilliant swim to finish fourth.
Updated
Makwala wins gold in the men's 400m final!
Back to the track, and it’s a Botwana 1-2 in the final! Makwala went out like a train – he’s a sub-20 second runner in the 200m – and kept going around the bend to win comfortably. His team-mate Baboloki Thebe pips Jamaica’s Javon Francis to silver. Remember there is no Kirani James here, so that made Makwala’s job a lot easier, but he will still be delighted with that medal after what happened at the World Championships last year.
Updated
Gold for Australia in the women's 4 x 100m medley relay final!
That caps an outstanding meet for Australia, Bronte Campbell blowing Canada’s Taylor Ruck away in the final length! Wales take the bronze! That’s five seconds off their national record! Great stuff.
Updated
Canada and Australia neck and neck going into the fourth leg! Alys Thomas is having a brilliant swim for Wales, who are hanging onto third!
Back to the pool now, for the final women’s swimming final: the 4 x 100m medley relay final. South Africa, Scotland, England, Australia, Canada, Wales, Isle of Man, New Zealand make up the lanes. World-record holder Kylie Masse of Canada leads the first leg, Australia half a second behind in second and Wales in third!
Updated
Have a look at all the best images from day six in our gallery.
Kurt Fearnley picks up his silver medal for the T54 1500m, with a huge roar going up from the home crowd as the athletes go up onto the podium. Congratulations to Canada’s Alexandre Dupont, who held Fearnley off down the home straight.
“Kurt Fearnley is a legend in wheelchair racing,” emails Chris Page. “He was a constant thorn in the side of David Weir. To go into retirement with a Commonwealth Silver in such a tight race, he has to be satisfied with what he’s achieved over 18 years of racing with greats such as Weir, Heinz Frei and Marcel Hug.”
Updated
Gold for New Zealand in the women's hammer throw!
Julia Ratcliffe takes it down, her score of 68.94m enough to see of Australia’s Alexandra Hulley. Australia’s Lara Nielson takes the bronze. Ratcliffe is in tears as she runs over to her coach in the crowd. Lord knows how Sophie Hitchon is feeling right now after she fouled out in the second round.
Updated
Gold for Nigeria in the men's heavyweight Para powerlifting!
Nigeria’s fourth powerlifting gold as Abdulazeez Ibrahim manages 220kg to secure a score of 191.9 points. Malaysia’s Jong Yee Khie takes the silver and India’s Sachin Chaudhary won bronze.
Silver for Wales in the pool – Australia win gold in the men's 1500m freestyle final!
Dan Jervis pushed Australian Jack McLoughlin all the way in the final two lengths, but couldn’t quite reach the wall for the gold. Still, that is an absolutely magnificent race from the Welshman, knocking three seconds off his personal best with a time of 14:48:67. Australia’s Mack Horton takes the bronze.
Part-time painter and decorator Jervis talks to the cameras:
I’ll be back in four years to win the gold. I hope, anyway. Fair play to Jack, he had a great swim. I was dying, to be fair! When you’re underwater, you can hear the roar of the crowd, there’s 10,000 people in here. It was so much fun. The main aim was to win a medal, and to make my mum and dad proud, as well as my beautiful girlfriend. The only reason I do this is to make them proud.”
Good talker, great swimmer.
Updated
The rain is now lashing down at the Carrara Stadium! Absolutely bucketing it down. The first of the three semi-finals for the women’s 400m are underway. Scotland’s Zoey Clark – Britain’s No 1 in this event – can only manage fourth in the first head, with Jamaica’s Anastasia Le-Roy and Botswana’s Amantle Montsho into the final with the two automatic spots.
Updated
England's Hitchon crashes out of the hammer throw final!
Big shock in the women’s hammer throw final, as England Sophie Hitchon – bronze medallist at Rio 2016 and the hot favourite for gold here – has fouled three times (the last finding the left edge of the net) and is out of the final! She is absolutely furious with herself, and while there were tears at her disappointing seventh-placed finish at the World Championships last year, there are none here. She stomps off, in an understandable huff.
New Zealand’s Julia Ratcliffe is currently leading with a throw of 68.60m after the second round, 40cm ahead of the Australian Alexandrea Hulley. To put that into context, Hitchon’s record throw is 74.54m.
Updated
Great scenes in the athletics stadium as Madison de Rozario collects her gold medal for her T54 1500m final triumph. With eye-catching silver hair and a smile as wide as the podium, she looks absolutely buzzing as the Australian national anthem blares out around the stadium. That will taste especially sweet after the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where she got a 40cm blood clot on the flight over from Australia to Scotland and ended up in hospital, unable to compete.
“Scotland’s Sammi Kinghorn was in contention for bronze,” emails Chris Page. “Fourth is no disgrace in such a strong field. Thirty years of studying wheelchair racing tells me that if Sammi stays fit and continues on her current trajectory, she will be a serious prospect at Tokyo 2020.”
Updated
More gold for Australia in the pool!
Australia have having a silly Games in the pool aren’t they? Lakeisha Patterson absolutely decimates the field in the women’s S8 50m freestyle final, a full two seconds clear of her nearest challenger, Canada’s Morgan Bird, who takes the silver. Abigail Tripp takes the bronze, she was comfortably third.
Meanwhile, it’s an Australian 1-2-3 in the men’s S9 100m backstroke final! Brendan Hall followed by Timothy Hodge and then Logan Powell.
Gold for Jamaica in the women's triple-jump!
Wow! Drama in the triple jump: Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts has been leading for the entire event but then on her last jump, Jamaica’s Kimperly Williams lays down 14.64m – a new lifetime best to snatch the gold medal from her team-mate! Ricketts has one final opportunity but can’t better Williams, who wins the gold by 12cm. Both Jamaican’s embrace, with Williams understandably delighted. She sets off on a victory lap around the stadium, the green-and-gold flat flying high. Thea Lafond of Dominica takes bronze.
Updated
Gold for Grenada in the men's decathlon!
Wales’s Ben Gregory wins the final event – the 1500m – but it is Lindon Victor that wins the overall decathlon with 8303 points, jogging over the finish line a few seconds after Lepage. Canada have won the last two men’s Commonwealth titles but Lepage can only manage silver although he does finish with a life-time best score of 8171, with Australia’s Dubler taking bronze, plenty of cheers from the home crowd for that one.
Grenada’s Lindon Victor leads the decathlon, a surprise leader of 170, which equates to a 26-second advantage into the final event – the 1500m - over his nearest challenger, Canada’s Pierce Lepage. Surely that is enough for the gold medal. Australia’s Cedric Dubler is in third. As they set off, Victor is at the back of the field, not because he’s tiring, simply because he wants to have his rivals in front of him, where he can see them, and accelerate if necessary.
Updated
Gold for Canada in men's T54 1500m!
That’s a shock result, and no fairytale send-off for Australia’s Kurt Fearnley in his last ever track race. Canada’s Alexandre Dupont took it out on the back straight. He went on the outside to stay on as Fearnley tried to flash home. Australia’s Jake Lappin took bronze, while England’s Richard Chiassaro faded to the back after attempting to take it out from the start.
Updated
In the women’s triple jump, it’s the end of the third round, the cut-off point for four jumpers, leaving eight to have three more jumps. Thea Lafond from Dominica can’t improve on her third place despite a slight improvement to 13.92m. Shaneika Richards of Jamaica on 14.52 leads compatriot Kimberley Williams on 14.34 in the hunt for gold, which is a reversal of the pre-meet predictions.
Updated
Gold for Australia in the men's 200m medley!
Mitch Larkin takes gold, his fourth of the games, by a fingernail from Scotland’s Duncan Scott who was flying home the final freestyle leg and has to be satisfied with his sixth medal of the meet. That was close. Clyde Lewis takes bronze for Australia.
Updated
Gold for Australia in the women's T54 1500m!
A front-running gold from Madison de Rozario, who destroyed the field. A 1-2 for Australia, in fact, with defending champ Angela Ballard getting silver. Back in bronze is Diane Roy, the veteran at 47.
Updated
Back in athletics, two Jamaicans lead the way in the women’s triple jump final. Shanieka Ricketts leads the way after laying down a season’s best score of 14.52m in front of her team-mate Kimberly Williams and Thea Lafond of Dominica.
John Brewin is jumping in the blog for the next 20 minutes or so. See you in a bit.
Gold for Australia in the women's 50m backstroke final!
Emily Seebohm beats Canada’s Kylie Masse to the gold! Ooooof, that was close! Wales’s Georgia Davies comes through to take the bronze in front of Australia’s Holly Barratt. Just 0.18secs separated the first four swimmers there. That is Australia’s 300th swimming gold medal in the Commonwealth Games.
Updated
Gold for England in the men's 50m freestyle!
Ben Proud defends his Commonwealth Games title! He won by half a second in front of South Africa’s Bradley Tandy and Australia’s Cameron McEvoy! Medals coming thick and fast in the athletics and swimming.
Updated
Gold for Jamaica in the men’s 110m hurdles!
Ronald Levy wins! Silver for Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment and Australia’s Nicholas Hough gets a surprise bronze in the outside lane, just pipping the Cypriot Milan Trajkovic to a place on the podium! Pozzi was nowhere, he hit the first hurdle and never recovered!
Updated
The men’s 110m hurdle final is just about to start. England’s Andrew Pozzi goes in lane four, with his two main rivals either side of him: Jamaica’s De’Jour Russell and Hansle Parchment, with Jamaica’s Ronald Levy in land seven. Here we go!
Updated
Gold for Australia!
Titmus wins the women’s 400m gold in the swimming in a time of 4:00:93, which knocks four seconds of the Commonwealth Games record! Silver for England’s Holly Hibbott and England’s Eleanor Faulker is third!
Updated
We go now to the pool, for the women’s 400m final. Australia’s Ariarne Titmus is the overwhelming favourite – the 17-year-old won the women’s 800m final yesterday.
It’s a clean start and Titmus has gone off quickly. England’s Holly Hibbott is second and Eleanor Faulker is third. Titmus is already two body lengths clear at the 200m mark.
England have been defeated 97-79 by Canada in the men’s basketball qualifying final. Canada progress to the semi-finals.
Earlier, Ali Jawad won men’s lightweight bronze, whilst Zoe Newson won bronze in the women’s lightweight final.
“Ali is a contender for Celebration of The Games, cartwheeling around the stage,” emails Chris Page. “It’s all the more remarkable because he’s been dealing with Crohn’s disease since Rio. And Zoe’s power-to-weight ratio is epic considering she has dwarfism. Well done to both!”
I'm truly lost for words. It was a miracle to even get her, but to come away with a medal is beyond everything I expected. 18 months battling Crohn's disease, thinking my career was over. Thank you to everyone that wished me support. It means the world to me. pic.twitter.com/OPUQQaLFRu
— Ali Jawad (@AliJawad12) April 10, 2018
Huge Congratulations to DSAuk member @Zoenewson92 in becoming a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 🥉🇦🇺 #DSAmazing pic.twitter.com/lYS901bU8H
— DSAUK (@dwarfsportDSAuk) April 10, 2018
England’s Sophie Hitchon is arguably the favourite to win gold in the women’s hammer in the final later. She threw a new British record of 74.54m at Rio 2016 to win a historic bronze there, becoming the first British woman to win a medal in this event. However, she did not have a great World Championships last year, finishing seventh, so certainly has a point to prove today.
In the basketball, England’s men are much improved in the third quarter but still down to Canada 67-89. A defeat would see them eliminated, and it looks like they are going to run out of time to mount a proper comeback.
England’s Andrew Pozzi also goes in the 110m hurdles final. He certainly is in contention for a medal with Jamaica’s Olympic and world champion hurdler Omar McLeod missing after not making himself available for the Games. Jamaica do have strong representation though in the form of De’Jour Russell and Hansle Parchment. That final starts in just over half an hour.
Pozzi won the 60m World Indoor Championships just over a month ago, so comes into this full of confidence.
Updated
Two of the biggest stars in the athletics tonight are South Africa’s Caster Semenya in the women’s 1500m final, and Botswana’s Isaac Makwala in the men’s 400m final. Both are favourites to win their respective events, but we’ve had plenty of upsets in these Games thus far, including last night when Yohan Blake slipped on the start line in the 100m final and South Africa’s Akani Simbine romped home to take the gold.
That’s it! Full-time in the men’s hockey, with England beating Wales 3-2, after their first competitive international since 2002. England are definitely through to the semi-finals but whether they top the group will depend on whether they can beat India on Wednesday.
Updated
England have just taken the lead! From 2-0 down, they are now 3-2 up after Sam Ward completed his hat-trick, firing a shot high past Wales goalkeeper James Fortnam. If the score stays like this, England should qualify for the semi-finals alongside India in Pool B, and Australia and New Zealand in Pool A.
In the men’s hockey, Australia have beaten Canada 4-0 in their Pool A game to advance to the semi-finals - the top two teams from the two pools will progress and New Zealand will join them in the last four.
In Pool B, things are a lot tighter. India lead the group with two wins and one draw from their three games thus far, but behind them, England, Malaysia, and Pakistan could each still qualify, just one point separates the three countries. England are currently playing bottom-placed Wales – it’s tight in the fourth quarter, with England’s Sam Ward tying the scores at 2-2 with a well-judged short corner, which was deflected into the roof of the net. England pushing for a winner.
Updated
Captain of the Northern Ireland boxing team, light-welterweight Sean McComb, has been handed a $756 fine for public nuisance and was banned from the Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach Safe Night Precincts for 10 days after an incident outside a Gold Coast nightclub. Nobody was injured but he has reportedly not returned to the Games village.
He was knocked out of medal contention on Sunday after losing to England’s Luke McCormack in the last 16.
Tom Daley withdraws from 10m individual platform
The 23-year-old won’t defend his Commonwealth title after sustaining a hip injury, but will still compete in men’s synchronised 10m platform on Friday.
“I am truly devastated not to be competing in the individual event,” Daley said. “I have been training so hard for the Commonwealth Games, so this is a real disappointment for me.”
Team England have also offered a statement:
Despite resting over the weekend, ongoing medical issues alongside a further injury in the pool last week has resulted in Tom and his training team agreeing that he should not compete in the individual platform diving event. The technical dives in the individual event put enormous physical strain on Tom’s body. Due to prior illness and with his hips being the determining factor, some of the dives Tom was due to demonstrate in the individual event would be too dangerous and impactful on his body.”
Daley had a rough preparation for these Games, after also suffering concussion at the Beijing World Series where he smashed his head on the water at a speed of 35mph.
Congratulations to Wales’ David Phelps, who set a Commonwealth Games record in the men’s 50m rifle prone shooting final earlier today with a score of 248.8 to win the gold medal. Scotland’s Neil Stirton took silver and England’s Kenneth Parr won bronze.
Updated
The sun is starting to go down in Australia, but we’ve got plenty of medals on offer this evening, especially in the athletics and in the pool.
Athletics-wise, this is what is coming up. The time on the left is the local time, the time on the right is BST.
In the pool, there’s also plenty up for grabs.
All the way up the coast in Cairns, over 1,000 miles north of the rest of the events, England’s men have just started their crunch basketball match against Canada. The winner of this side will play New Zealand in the semi-final, and Canada have made a roaring start: they are 19-8 up in the first quarter. England have called a time-out, Andreas Kapoulas is not happy! “Maintain composure! Maintain composure!” screams England’s coach, his own composure slightly slipping.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier, Harry Tanfield won silver in the men’s time trial, behind Australian Cameron Meyer, who won in a time of 48 minutes 13.04 seconds, some 30 seconds ahead of Tanfield.
It’s a brilliant result for Tanfield, who pipped New Zealander Hamish Bond by just two seconds.
I didn’t know who was going to be riding. I didn’t know if they were going to fly (three-time Australian national time trial champion) Rohan Dennis in for this or what. I didn’t know Cam (Meyer) was riding til the other day. I honestly had no idea. I know my power, I know what I can do but don’t know what I can do in the heat. It wasn’t that hot in the end but I haven’t done a 40-minute TT effort since October last year so I was a bit uncertain how it would go.”
Fair to say, the boy done good.
Silver for England's Louise Sugden!
Sugden, who has previously spent nine years playing wheelchair basketball for Great Britain (including five bronze medals from 6 European Championships, Gold at the 2011 Paralympic World Cup and competing at Beijing and London Paralympic games) took up para-powerlifting only last year but now has a Commonwealth silver medal in the heavyweight division. Ndidi Nwosu of Nigeria took gold, and Joyce Njuguna of Kenya won bronze.
Wales are playing Uganda in both the women’s singles table tennis. It’s 11-year-old (!) Anna Hursey in action against Halima Nambozo and it’s the secondary school student, playing in the Commonwealth Games in her Easter holidays, that has taken the first two games: 11-5, 11-4. She needs one more for the match.
Updated
What a finish in the netball! Scotland’s women were 47-51 down to Malawi in the fourth quarter but mounted a miraculous comeback in the final minute. Malawi had a player sent off for timewasting, Scotland clawed it back to 50-51 and were awarded a penalty in literally the final second of the match, but Bethan Goodwin missed the shot. She had played very well, but was inconsolable when the referee called full-time, and ran off the court in tears, her team-mates supporting her.
That’s a massive result for Malawi, who shocked New Zealand a couple of days ago 57-53. They still have a chance to qualify from Pool B behind England, who lead the group.
Tomorrow, Scotland face Uganda, Malawi play Wales and England take on New Zealand in Pool B.
Struggling to tweet as shaking & not embarrassed to say a bit teary. Cannot believe that game and how close we came to the draw. We are so so so proud of our @ScotThistles & of that magnificent performance. Hold your heads so high ladies. You were magnificent 💜🏴 pic.twitter.com/wIEP3VKUbG
— Netball Scotland (@NetballScotland) April 10, 2018
Updated
Good morning, good afternoon and goodnight, wherever you are in the world.
Any comments, hopes, dreams? Do send them through on email michael.butler@theguardian.com or @michaelbutler18.
Right, that’s me done for the afternoon. I’ll hand you over now to my colleague Michael Butler who’ll take you through the evening session.
Still a heap of action to look for tonight. Here’s a quick reminder:
- There are nine more gold medals to be won in the swimming, in what is the last day of action in the pool. That includes both the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m medley relay final.
- From 7.30pm (Gold Coast)/10.30am BST the athletics begins again, with the men’s 110m hurdles, the women’s 1500m and the men’s Decathlon 1500m among the events to watch.
Thanks for hanging out. Enjoy your evening.
Updated
Gold for Nigeria!
Nigeria’s Esther Oyema has won gold and broken a world record in the para powerlifting women’s lightweight final. Oyema score of 141.6 was enough to beat out fellow Nigerian Lucy Ejike and England’s Zoe Newson who won silver and bronze respectively.
Sad news this. The elbow injury that forced New Zealand transgender competitor Laurel Hubbard out of the weightlifting competition has ended her career, Reuters reports.
The Australian women are doing in pretty easy in the beach volleyball against Rwanda. They’ve just won the first set 21-9. While the sides take a break the crowd are being led through a rendition of Sweet Caroline. Because I guess why not?
Gold for India
Amid all the excitement of the cycling I almost missed a gold medal! India’s Heena Sidhu has taken out the women’s 25m pistol ahead of Australia’s Elena Galiabovitch.
Quite a shot of England’s Hayley Simmonds after her bronze in the women’s individual time trial. Simmonds came to the Games as England’s national champion, but this is her first time on the podium at the international level.
In a moment I’ll take you to the women’s beach volleyball, where Australia’s women are about to take on Rwanda in the quarterfinals.
First though, file this one under administrative disaster. English cyclist Melissa Lowthe was denied the chance to compete in the women’s time trial thanks to a Team England official’s failure to tick a box in her entry form.
The oversight wasn’t spotted, despite “seven or eight” layers of checks. My colleague Martha Kelner reports from the Gold Coast.
Still on cycling, my colleague Kate O’Halloran has this on today’s other gold winning cyclist from Australia, Cameron Meyer. Have a look.
Updated
Gold for Australia!
That’s it, Katrin Garfoot wins gold for Australia in the women’s road cycling time trial in emphatic fashion. When the rain started to fall before she started her race it could have thrown her but she was faster the whole way and never looked like losing.
Heck, coming into the backend of the race and Garfoot’s really showing while she’s the favourite.
With 5km to run she’s more than 40 seconds ahead of New Zealand’s Linda Villumsen in second. It really feels like the Australian has benefitted from having time riding this course in the lead-up. She’s hitting those tight corners so quick it’s frightening.
We’re underway in the cycling with the women’s road time trial. The race is a 25.5km slog through the hills of Currumbin, a suburb of the Gold Coast. Currumbin’s actually best known for its birds. A couple of years ago an eagle attacked a woman’s at a wildlife sanctuary there!
Let’s hope the cyclists aren’t distracted by the thought of crazed eagles attacking their faces, though, because it’s raining out there right now and they’ll need their wits about them. There’s a few steep climbs and tight corners in this course.
Australia’s Katrin Garfoot is the red-hot favourite. The German-born Garfoot actually lives on the Gold Coast, so she’s had a chance to practice on this course. New Zealand’s Linda Villumsen won this event four years ago and will also be one to watch, as is Scotland’s Katie Archibald England’s Hayley Simmonds.
As I write this we’re about 10km in and Simmonds is ahead of Archibald the Scot.
South Africa’s Akani Simbine and Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago have been speaking to reporters the day after their impressive wins in the men’s and women’s 100m sprint final last night.
Simbine was a shock winner over Yohan Blake, who’d been favourite to carry on Jamaica’s dominance in the event following Usain Bolt’s retirement. Instead Simbine became the first South African to win the 100m gold, finishing in 10.03 seconds ahead of compatriot Henricho Bruintjies who won silver and Blake in third.
The 24-year-old has previously finished fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics and last year’s world championships in London.
“The guys back home have been going crazy - my phone, social media, my parents still can’t believe it, they’re so excited. My mum is smiling - like ‘next level’ smiling.
“It’s an amazing feeling, it’s still sinking in, I haven’t slept much.
“I thought it would’ve been a tighter race. I actually had a bit of a gap (Blake). I told myself I had to get out in front of Yohan. I knew if I could get to the 60m before him, I knew I would win.
“Africa was a sprinting nation, there was Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia that used to run fast. But now we have South Africans and Nigerians running fast.
“There were four Africans in the final last night, which shows Africa is doing something right.
Ahye won in 11.14 ahead of Jamaican duo Christania Williams and Gayon Evans.
“It feels amazing. This is my first gold medal in an individual event, so it means a lot. It’s still sinking in, I’m still shocked.
“Everybody’s going crazy; my phone is still blurting out from last night. My mom is still screaming.”
While we’re waiting for the women’s cycling to begin, let’s hear from Australia’s world champion track cyclist Cameron Meyer, who, as I mentioned earlier, won gold in the men’s individual time trial this morning.
The 30-year-old is a former Tour Down Under winner who’s also recorded stage wins in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia. He finished the race in 48 minutes and 13.04 seconds. Meyer narrowly missed out on a podium finish in the 40km points race a few nights ago, and said after the race that he he was determined to make up for that disappointment.
“There’s so much motivation going around after the first week with other athletes winning gold. I missed my target in the (track cycling men’s 40km) points race, so I did have fire in my belly going out there today, and it couldn’t have gone better.”
He also revealed that he’d only decided to ride in the time trial a fortnight ago.
“Only two weeks ago. My coach approached me because he knew I had good road-racing form. He sorted out a bike out for me and got all my measurements and I just thought I’d give it a crack.”
“Recently I’ve been concentrating on my track cycling for Tokyo (2020 Olympic Games). I broke my collarbone in the last road race I did (two-and-a-half years ago), and that put me off, but I’m really happy I gave it a second shot.”
Welcome to day six
Greetings, sports lovers of the Commonwealth. Welcome to another day of action from the sunny Gold Coast.
If you’re catching up, Australia has streaked away in the medal count in the first five days, picking up a swag of gold in the pool. Last night’s big one was the women’s 100m freestyle final, where the Campbell sisters – Bronte and Cate – nabbed gold and silver for the hosts.
England had success in the squash finals where James Willstrop picked up the gold, while the Jamaican Yohan Blake failed to produce in the men’s 100m sprint final, losing out to the South African duo of Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies.
The big news so far today is that Cameron Meyer has won gold for Australia in the cycling, winning the men’s individual time trial. Earlier today in shooting England and Wales both picked up gold in the shooting Queen’s Prize Pair and men’s 50m rifle prone finals.
Here’s what’s still to come on day five. Remember, all times are local – the Gold Coast is GMT +10:00 and EST +14:00.
Coming up
The women’s cycling time trial is the first one to watch this afternoon, it’s due to start at 2.45pm. England and Australia’s men’s hockey teams both have big games today too, taking on Wales and Canada respectively.
Later we’ve got the final day of action in the pool with a whopping nine more gold to be won, and in athletics the men’s 110m hurdles, the women’s 1500m and the men’s Decathlon 1500m are among the big ticket items.
Let’s get amongst it!
Updated
