Australian field athletes have rarely been the nation’s sporting standard bearers but unexpected Commonwealth Games gold medals in the high jump and javelin at Carrara Stadium helped Australia’s athletics team pick up where the record-breaking swimmers left off.
Brandon Starc, the younger brother of cricketer Mitchell, cleared 2.32m to snatch victory in the men’s high jump. In recording a personal best, Starc became the first Australian to win a major high jump competition in 24 years.
“This is just unreal. The whole stadium, I could not thank them enough. I have no words,” Starc said. “I knew I was in good form, I just had to back myself and believe in myself.”
Kathryn Mitchell broke her personal best, the Commonwealth Games record and the Australian record with her opening throw in the women’s javelin. Mitchell’s effort of 68.92m was a mark no other competitor came close to beating, and would have comfortably won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she finished sixth. Fellow Australian Kelsey-Lee Roberts saved her best effort until last, moving into the silver medal position at the death.
Remarkably, it was a first ever podium finish for Mitchell, a 35-year-old veteran of four Commonwealth Games and two Olympics.
“I’ve opened before with my biggest throw, I’ve also thrown my biggest throw in the last round,” Mitchell said. “I just tried to concentrate on what I was doing in that moment, and I did that on the first throw.
“The less I focus on results, the more the results come. I tried to put all thought of results out of my mind. I knew I could throw the Australian record eventually, so I just said to myself, ‘allow it to come’.”
Henry Frame fell just short of making it a triple treat for Australia in Wednesday night’s field events, finishing with silver in the men’s long jump. Frame led for most of the competition, but was out-jumped at the death by South African world champion Luvo Manyonga.
Cameron Crombie, a volunteer firefighter from Canberra, won the gold medal in the men’s F38 shot put final with a throw of 15.74 metres, a whisker short of the world record.
In the women’s T35 100 metres, 16-year-old Isis Holt also fell just shy of a world-best time, providing her nation’s highlight on the track at Carrara Stadium.
The Australian medal tally kept climbing, even after the conclusion of the swimming program, the country’s best ever result in the pool.
Australia’s first gold medal of the day - and 51st for these Games – came from on-target shooter Daniel Repacholi, who took out the men’s 50-metre pistol event. Repacholi, 35, now a three-time gold medallist from four Commonwealth Games, had before the event announced it would be his last international shoot. His score of 227.2 was a Games record.
“It’s amazing,” he said straight after the victory. “To win gold in front of my beautiful wife, my two beautiful kids and all our family it’s fantastic. It was great, [the crowd] were behind me the whole way. I don’t know if the same result would have happened if they weren’t here or if it was in another country.”
Australian pair Georgia Sheehan and Esther Qin won the first diving gold medal on offer, jumping from fourth to first with their final dive in the women’s 3m springboard synchronised diving competition.
Strong winds and technical problems with the scoring system overshadowed the remarkable come-from-behind victory. Fellow Australians Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith, bronze medallists at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had led the competition until the last round but appeared to be affected by the long delays and recorded a no-dive. They finished seventh.
The outdoor conditions will likely prove challenging for the remainder of the diving program.
“At the end of the day everyone’s in the same boat, everyone’s up,” Sheehan said. “They’e the same conditions [for all] so it’s really just who can deal with it the best today and that just happened to be us, which is really exciting.”
On the Gold Coast’s iconic beachfront, Australian pairs won through to the women’s and men’s finals of the beach volleyball.
Chris McHugh and Damien Schumann comfortably beat English opponents Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf. McHugh and Schumann are strong favourites to win Thursday’s gold medal match and showed their strong credentials with a cultured display against the 210cm Gregory, who posed a unique challenge at Coolangatta Beach.
“Gregory is a big, strong blocker so it was important to move him around,” Schumann said. “There’s been a lot of nervous, sleepless nights, and tonight will be no different. We’ll give it our best crack tomorrow. Whoever we play is going to be world class.
Their win was matched by women’s pair Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar, who will also play for gold tomorrow. Both pairs will face Canadian opponents.
