Australia complete Games glory with scratch one-two
Cameron Meyer celebrated a third gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Friday as Australia’s formidable endurance riders took gold and silver in the men’s 25km scratch race.
Meyer, who looked comfortable and in charge from the starting hooter, punched the air as he caught teammate Michael Freiberg, who won silver, on the last lap. Zach Bell of Canada took third spot on the podium.
Australia looked odds-on bets to clean up going into the event, with Meyer already a gold medallist in the points race and team pursuit.
Australia’s women win 4x100m freestyle relay gold
Australia on Friday won gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle in a new Commonwealth Games record.
The foursome of Alicia Coutts, Marieke Guehrer, Felicity Galvez and Emily Seebohm beat the previous best by 0.13secs to clock 3:36.36.
Canada’s women were disqualified, handing the silver to England, with New Zealand in bronze.
The win gave Coutts her fourth gold of the Games and Seebohm her second out of a total of six medals.
Turner leads English clean sweep in 110m hurdles
European champion Andy Turner led an English clean sweep in the the men’s Commonwealth Games 110 metres hurdles final on Friday, capping a breakthrough season.
He crossed the line in 13.38 seconds ahead of sickly compatriot William Sharman who took silver (13.50) and injured Lawrence Clarke (13.70) who claimed bronze.
While the time was short of Colin Jackson’s 13.08 Commonwealth record and off his personal best, it drew the curtain on a memorable season for the 30-year-old, who improved on the bronze he won in Melbourne four years ago.
Australia dominate gymnastics on way to the Worlds
Australia’s gymnasts happily admitted using the Commonwealth Games in Delhi as a convenient stop-over on their way to the World Championships – and nine golds made the detour well worthwhile.
Lauren Mitchell, 19, from Perth, was the star of the competition, collecting four golds in the team, all-round, uneven bars and beam when the event wrapped up on Friday.
India hit double gold on historic wrestling day
India’s female Commonwealth Games wrestling squad celebrated their most successful day in history on Friday, adding to the nation’s burgeoning golds tally and closing the gap with the men.
The host nation took two golds and a silver, bringing the biggest crowd of the week to its feet chanting “India, India” at the Indira Gandhi arena.
Newly-crowned national star Anita (eds note: one name only) completed a dream day when she won the freestyle title.
Kenya dominates as Botswana gets first gold
Kenyan women strode to the 1,500m and 10,000m Commonwealth Games titles on Friday as Amantle Montsho won Botswana’s first-ever gold medal.
Malaysia win badminton team gold
Malaysia beat India 3-1 on Friday to win the Commonwealth Games badminton team gold.
England beat Singapore to claim the bronze.
Singapore cruise to third women’s team gold
Singapore beat India 3-0 to win the Commonwealth Games women’s table tennis team gold medal on Friday and capture a third straight title since the sport was introduced in Manchester in 2002.
World number two Feng Tianwei gave Singapore the perfect start as she dismissed the challenge of Mouma Das 11-5, 11-3, 9-11, 11-7, despite dropping her first set of this Games.
Nick Matthew and Nicol David win Commonwealth Games squash titles
England’s top seed Nick Matthew won the Commonwealth Games men’s squash gold medal on Friday when he defeated second seeded compatriot James Willstrop 11-6, 11-7, 11-7 in the final.
Peter Barker of England beat Malaysia’s Mohammed Azlan Iskandar 11-5, 11-4, 11-2 to capture bronze. While Malaysian super star Nicol David proves up to her reputation by winning the title.
India’s Devvarman and Mirza reach tennis finals
India’s Somdev Devvarman pulled off the first leg of what he hopes will be an Australian double to reach the men’s singles final at the Commonwealth Games tennis tournament on Friday.
The top seed won through 6-3, 6-1 against Matt Ebden and will face another Australian, Greg Jones, in the final.
Devvarman, who has broken into the ATP world top 100 this year after a successful college-playing career in the United States, opened strongly with a break of serve to lead 2-0, but Ebden was soon back on level terms with a break of his own.
Cheered on by a small but vociferous block of fans, Devvarman secured a second break of serve in the seventh game to move into a 5-3 lead and broke again in the following game on the back of an Ebden double-fault.
The fleet-footed Indian was in full control of the exchanges and with Ebden struggling to stay with him, the top seed pounced again in the fifth game of the second set to take a 3-1 lead.
When he added another break two games later it was all over as Devvarman stayed on course to become the first ever Commonwealth Games tennis champion.
