After finishing fourth in the discus at the Tokyo Olympics, Matthew Denny has climbed to the top of the podium at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
All six of Denny's throws in the final would have been enough for gold, but his final effort of 67.26 metres was the furthest he has ever thrown and less than a metre off the Games record.
It nabbed him his first Commonwealth Games gold, after he won silver in the hammer throw on the Gold Coast in 2018.
The Birmingham gold may also go some way to easing the pain of his Tokyo Olympics campaign, where he finished fourth in the discus, just 5 centimetres short of a bronze medal.
Earlier, para sports superstar Madison de Rozario added the T54/T53 1,500m gold medal to her marathon win, crossing the line just ahead of teammate Angie Ballard.
While Australians Rohan Dennis and Grace Brown won gold medals in the men's and women's road cycling time trials.
On the first day without swimming on the program, Australia won nine medals, with silver medals for Sarah Edmiston in the women's F42-44/61-64 discus, Shixin Li in the men's 1m springboard diving, and the rhythmic gymnastics team event. New Zealand-born Hani Watson picked up bronze in the women's heavyweight para-powerlifting.
Look back at how day seven unfolded in our live blog.
Key events
- 🥇 Athletics: Gold for Matt Denny!
- 🥈 Rhythmic gymnastics: Australia wins silver in team event
- 🥉 Weightlifting: Hani Watson gets third in the women's heavyweight
- 🥇🥈 Athletics: Gold for de Rozario, silver for Ballard!
- 🥈 Athletics: Sarah Edmiston finishes second in women's F42-44/61-64 discus
- 🥈 Diving: Shixin Li sandwiched between two Englishmen in men's 1m springboard
- 🥇 Cycling: Rohan Dennis wins the men's time trial
- 🥇 Cycling: Grace Brown wins women's time trial gold
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Live updates
By Jon Healy
What to look out for on day eight
So after a nine-medal day, Australia heads into day eight still well clear at the top of the medal tally. Here's some of the events to keep an eye out for on day eight in Birmingham (all times AEST)...
- Beach volleyball: Both Australian teams have their quarter-finals tonight — the men at 9pm and the women at 11:30pm
- Diving: Women's 1m springboard final (3:05am) and men's 10m synchro final, featuring Australia's Domonic Paul William Bedggood and Cassiel Emmanuel Rousseau (4:23am)
- Athletics: Sam Carter and Jake Lappin are in the T53/54 1,500m men's final at 4:55am, Cedric Dubler and Alec Diamond will wrap up the decathlon with the 1,500m at 6:27am, and Amy Cashin and Brielle Erbacher will don green and gold in the 3,000m steeplechase final at 6:42
- Hockey: The Hockeyroos play India in a semi-final at 5:15am
- Lawn bowls: Australia's para mixed pairs B2/B3 team go for bronze at 9pm tonight
- Rhythmic gymnastics: Lidiia Iakovleva and Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva are in the all-around final from 10:30pm, wrapping up around 1:30am
That's all from me and Simon today, but we'll see you dark and early tomorrow!
By Simon Smale
At the end of the day it's another day over
And that, my friends, is the end of our live action today.
Thanks for being with us.
By Simon Smale
Squash: Husband and wife face off in quarter finals
How's this for a set up, by the way.
Australian squash player Donna Lobban will play in the mixed doubles quarter-final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games tonight (Australia time).
Standing next to her on court, although playing for the other side, will be her Scottish husband, Greg Lobban.
"I have already started the mental warfare," Donna Lobban, who is the reigning Commonwealth champion, said.
By Simon Smale
Weightlifting: Ben Wright gets fourth
Aussie para-weightlifter Ben Wright has finished in fourth place.
Sudhir won gold for India with a Games record score of 134.5, just ahead of Ikechukwu Christian Obichukwu of Nigeria, who got 133.6.
The bronze medal was won by a very pumped Micky Yule.
By Simon Smale
Hockey: Magnificent seven as Kookaburras thump Pakistan
Well, that was another demolition job from the unbeaten Kookaburras.
It's finished 7(seven)-0.
Tom Wickham added a personal second - a peach of a goal as well, driving to the line, cutting back and beating the keeper at his near post with a reverse cut.
Beautiful.
He finished with two goals, so too did Jeremy Hayward, with Nathan Ephraums, Jacob Anderson and Blake Govers completing the scoring.
Australia are unbeaten through the group stages and surely unbackable favourites to win gold.
By Simon Smale
Netball: Diamonds to face England
England have beaten New Zealand in the netball to set up a blockbuster semi final against Australia, who stunningly lost to Jamaica overnight.
The England New Zealand game was a belter of a match, ebbing and flowing throughout the entire contest.
England prevailed 54-44, cheered on by a passionate home crowd, who roared with every intercept and every goal.
England led throughout, but New Zealand continued to threaten right down the stretch.
However, a huge interception from England's wing defence, Stacey Francis-Bayman, late in the final quarter deflated the Kiwis and pushed England to a ten-point win.
It sets up a mouthwatering semi final, which will be a repeat of the final from 2018, when England stunningly beat the Diamonds by a single point.
By Jon Healy
Athletics: Just Hough the pace in hurdles final
Australian Nick Hough finished in seventh place in the 110m hurdles final.
The 28-year-old finished ahead of only Jamaica's Hansle Parchment, who was a non-starter.
Hough's time of 13.83 was 0.75 of a second behind gold medallist Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica, who set a new Games record.
Barbados's Shane Brathwaite and England's Andrew Pozzi won silver and bronze.
By Simon Smale
Hockey: Kookaburras firmly in control
Tom Wickham has got on the scoresheet and Jeremy Hayward has added his second as the Kookaburra's start to flex their muscles a bit at the University hockey and squash centre.
Australia leads Pakistan 4-0 at the final break.
By Simon Smale
🥇 Athletics: Gold for Matt Denny!
Terrific stuff from Matt Denny, who never looked in serious doubt
The world world youth champion claims Commonwealth Games gold with a personal best throw of 67.26m, which will go some way to ease the pain of that fourth place at the Olympics last year.
He beat an increasingly frustrated Lawrence Okoye of England into silver, with Traves Smikle of Jamaica in third.
By Jon Healy
🥈 Rhythmic gymnastics: Australia wins silver in team event
Australia locks up silver in the team rhythmic gymnastics, with Canada dominating the competition.
- 1.Canada: 272.950
- 2.Australia: 268.650
- 3.England: 267.050
This silver for the team of Ashari Jesse Gill, Lidiia Iakovleva and Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva adds to the nine medals so far for their artistic counterparts.
Iakovleva and Kiroi-Bogatyreva also qualified for the individual all-around event, which is limited to two per country.
By Simon Smale
Badminton: Aussies compete in round of 32 action
Let's quickly sweep around the NEC and catch up with the multitude of badminton games that have been taking place today involving Aussies.
Jack Yu and Kaitlyn Ea beat Jamaica in the mixed doubles round of 32, prevailing in a tight match 21-13, 16-21, 21-8.
Australia's other mixed pair of Tran Hoang Pham and Angela Yu made short work of Uganda 21-6, 21-7, while Ying Xiang Lin and Gronya Somerville also defeated a Ugandan pair by a similarly comfortable 21-10, 21-6.
In the men's singles round of 32, Ying Xiang Lin beat Narayan Tolamani Ramdani of Guyana 21-12, 21-8, although Nathan Tang was comfortably beaten 21-11, 21-7 by England's Toby Penty.
But in the men's doubles, Tran Hoang Pham and Jack Yu thumped the pair from the Falkland Islands 21-5, 21-7.
Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen managed to beat Lorna Tara Jinee of Mauritius 21-3, 21-6 in their round of 32 clash, but Tiffany Ho fell to Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour 21-6, 21-14.
By Simon Smale
Hockey: Kookaburra's lead 2-0 at half time
The Kookaburra's lead Pakistan 2-0 at the half-time break.
Jeremy Haywood added to Australia's tally in the second quarter from a penalty corner.
Pakistan have been pushing and probing at the Australian defence, but it's holding firm at the moment.
Australia has had 57 per cent possession.
By Jon Healy
Athletics: Matt Denny getting better and better in discus
Australia is in with a big chance in the men's discus final, with Matthew Denny going bigger with every throw.
His first of 65.26m would be good enough for the lead, but he's gone 66.61 and 66.72 with his second and third to really let the field know who's boss.
He's approaching his season-best mark of 67.07m.
England's Lawrence Okoye is the best of the chasers with 64.97m.
By Simon Smale
Athletics: Dubler makes his Decathlon move
A great 400m from Cedric Dubler in the final event of the day's decathlon.
He streaked ahead of his competitors to win in a time of 48.47.
Lindon Victor still leads overall after running a 49.51.
Kurt Felix is still third, he ran a season's best to finish in 49.67.
Daniel Golubovic ran the third fastest 400m in the field, but remains in fifth, just behind Alec Diamond, whose time of 50.07 was only good enough for seventh fastest.
By Simon Smale
Hockey: Australia lead Pakistan at quarter time
Good start for the Aussies, who lead Pakistan by 1-0 at the end of the first quarter.
It was Blake Govers who got the opening goal of the contest.
The Kookaburras are unbeaten so far in the tournament.
By Jon Healy
Athletics: Aussies miss their marks in thrilling long jump final
Australian Chris Mitrevski missed the cut after three jumps because he kept jumping so far short of the launch pad.
Henry Frayne, meanwhile, finished sixth with 7.94m, which was one of only two legitimate jumps he did, overstepping on the others.
At the top though, it was a tight contest between Laquan Nairn of the Bahamas and India's Sreeshankar Sreeshankar.
Both jumped 8.08m, but Nairn gets the gold on countback, which in long jump means your second-best jump.
Nairn's was 7.98m, and Sreeshankar's was 7.84m, but that may have been different had Sreeshankar not overstepped by 2 centimetres on his final jump. Not sure of the length, but it look over 8 metres.
Alas, Nairn gets gold, Sreshankar silver, and Jovan van Vuuren gets bronze for South Africa.
By Simon Smale
🥉 Weightlifting: Hani Watson gets third in the women's heavyweight
Australia has picked up another medal in the weightlifting thansk to Hani Watson.
The New Zealand born athlete earned 98.5 points for her lift of 127kg, which she got on her third and final lift after failing at 125, so a gutsy ploy to get a medal.
She finished behind the two Nigerian athletes Alice Folashade Oluwafemiayo, who got a World Record of 123.4 points, ahead of compatriot Bose Patricia Omolayo.
By Jon Healy
Athletics: Matt Denny in the discus final
The big Queenslander has just launched his first frisbee 65.26 to be the best of the early starters.
Denny actually won silver at the last Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, but in hammer throw.
By Simon Smale
Bowls: Aaron Wilson sails on, teams narrowly miss out
Hey, all this athletics chat is all well and good, but what's been happening in the bowls at Victoria Park? I hear you ask.
Well, there's been some good results overnight from the Aussies, just as you'd expect.
Aaron Wilson beat Guernsey's Todd Priaulx 21-7 in their pool match, and then backed it up with a 21-9 win over South Africa's Jason Evans.
The women's triples were a mixed bag for Australia though.
Australia's trio of Lynsey Clarke, Natasha van Eldik and Rebecca van Asch beat Northern Ireland 19-9.
However, they lost their quarter final to New Zealand in a tense and tight contest, 14-10.
In the para mixed pairs B2/B3, Australia's crew of Helen Boardman and director Peter Doherty plus Jake Fehlberg and his director Matthew Northcott narrowly lost out to Wales, 13-10 in the semi final.
They'll meet England in the bronze medal match tomorrow.
By Simon Smale
Athletics: Madison de Rozario is the first para-athlete to win four Comm Games gold medals
A bit of history for Madison de Rozario.
She's the first Australian para-athlete to win four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games.
Legend is a word that gets thrown around a bit too much at times.
I think it's warranted here though.
