18.10 Never mind that, Scott Sunderland of Australia has just blitzed
the track and moved into the gold medal position. The means Archibald’s
games record has gone too, 1:06.75 his time. In fact Archibald is down to
the bronze medal position as his fellow New Zealander Simon van Velthooven
has come in second. It means that there will be no medals for England’s
Clancy and Emadi.
18.06 New Zealand’s Matthew Archibald has taken the lead in the men’s
time trial with a new games record. He leads from England’s Ed Clancy and
Kian Emadi.
18.03 I promised you backflip photos and I’ll be damned if I don’t
deliver on my liveblog promises, folks. Here is the 20-year-old
double-Commonwealth-medalist, Commonwealth champion weightlifter who can
also do backflips. But could she throw a shoe over a pub?
17.59 In another unsurprising hockey result, Scotland fought back…
kind of. They ended with a 6-2 defeat against India, which is an improvement
after being 5-0 down.
17.45 The headlines tomorrow will surely be about Zoe
Smith and her brilliant win in the weightlifting. “I’ve done
it, I’ve done it,” were her understandably excited words upon claiming
the win, shortly after she celebrated with a backflip (I’ll keep looking for
a photo of this). Jones won bronze in India four years ago: then she became
the first British woman to win a Commonwealth weightlifting medal and now
she’s the first to win a Commonwealth weightlifting gold. At this juncture,
let’s remember she’s just 20 years old and reflect on our own lives a bit.
17.43 I’ll be heading to the pool in an hour or so – and how I wish I
didn’t mean that figuratively, given London’s heat at the moment – but
sticking at the velodrome for now the men’s 1000m time trial is underway.
It’s early, but England’s Steven Burke leads.
17.37 Apparently the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome is awash with The
Proclaimers, which is a bit ironic given they’re on wheels, rather than
walking.
17.29 Guess who’s back, back again. It’s Dan Lucas. That wasn’t very
hard, was it? Anyway, while we were away…
- Neil Fachie and Craig Maclean produced a brilliant ride to make it 1-1 in
the men’s B2 sprint tandem final
– England will have a finalist in squash as Peter Barker and Nick Matthew
both won their quarter-finals to set up a meet in the semis
– Michaela Breeze of Wales won bronze in the -58kg weightlifting, but…
– England’s Zoe Smith has won gold in the same competition
– Oh and as I write this, Fachie and Maclean have gold for Scotland in
the B2 sprint tandem final!
17.04 Heartbreak for Matt Ellis and Ieuan Evans as they look to have
enough of a lead over Kennedy and Clarke in the second round of the bronze
medal race, but the Australians manage to power through and nick it right on
the line by mere inches.
We’re going to take a break for a little while now as I’m starving. I’ll bring
you a roundup of everything we miss shortly, but for now here’s another
thing to love about Scotland.
16.54 This hopefully isn’t too serious.
16.47 Jess Varnish, the likeable 23-year-old, has it all to do here
against the great Anna Meares. 1-0 down after an excellent first race,
Varnish takes the lead and pushes Meares up but the Australian nips inside
and Varnish slips a little. Meares won’t be caught and it will be an
all-Australian final. Meares is guaranteed a medal, meaning she will become
the most successful Australian cyclist of all time.
16.42 A quick look away from the velodrome tells me India are 2-0 up at
half time against Scotland in the men’s hockey. Back to the main event
(sorry, hockey) and Stephanie Morton will look to book her place in the
final. She takes the lead at the start against Fatehah Mustapa and simply
burns Mustapa off. Not even close that and Morton will race for gold
tomorrow.
16.39 Apologies, the organisers rather inconsiderately decided to host
the women’s scratch race during my comfort break. Laura Trott, England’s
great medal hope… made no real impression. In the end it’s an
Australian-dominated race as Annette Edmonson takes gold ahead of her
compatriot Amy Cure. There’s a bronze for Wales though, or, more
specifically, for Elinor Barker, aged just 19.
16.19 Australia’s Paul Kennedy and Thomas Clarke beat the Welsh pair of
Matt Ellis and Ieuan Williams in the first race of three for the bronze
medal in the Para-sport tandem, before Kieran Modra and Jason Niblett, also
of Australia, beat Scotland’s Scotland’s Neil Fachie and Craig Maclean in
the first heat of the gold medal race.
16.13 I’ve been awfully remiss and not stuck a photo of England’s
triathlon win – surely the big story of the day so far – into the blog. Well
here’s one, as Alistair Brownlee completing a resounding victory.
16.05 Anna Meares, the Olympic champion, is going to be a hell of a
challenge now for England’s Jess Varnish. Varnish starts on the inside and
forces Meares wide and it’s so, so tight! Meares takes it by a wheel right
at the death after a thrilling sprint down the home straight. 1-0 Australia.
16.03 In the first women’s sprint semi-final at the velodrome, Fatehah
Mustapa of Malaysia facies the heavily fancied Australian Stephanie Morton.
The former dips inside and forces Morton wide, but the Australian has the
speed to get around the outside and take it on the line. 1-0.
15.57 Georgios Achilleos from Cyprus has won gold in the skeet
shooting, while Wales eventually lost 7-1 to Australia in the hockey. Expect
everyone to lose to Australia in the hockey. In the women’s 10m air rifle
event, India’s Apurvi Chandela takes gold and her compatriot Ayonika Paul
silver. Malaysia’s Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi wins the bronze medal.
Have you been wondering what our friends across the pond make of this whole
thing? Of course you have! Well wonder no further, as the brilliant Last
Week Tonight with John Oliver explains in this
video we can’t embed.. Warning: there’s a bad word in there.
15.44 With this being a lull in the action, our very own Jonathan
Liew fires this missive down the West Coast Mainline (and, er, then down
the Victoria underground line a bit) from Glasgow to London.
Huge crowds milling outside the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome waiting to be let
in for the evening’s cycling. Can’t help but feel it’s a ploy to boost sales
at the merchandise and food stalls. Worked for me: haggis balls and chips,
£7, worth every deep fried penny.
By the way, if you’re wondering what commentary legend Hugh Porter’s up to
these days, I bumped into him outside. He’s commentating for the world feed,
and still his effortlessly chipper self.
Jonathan even sends us his holiday snap.
15.35 My apologies, Wales v Australia is still going in the hockey.
It’s now 6-1 to the world number ones.
15.31 Medals in the skeet shooting. It’s a bronze for England’s Rory
Warlow and silver for Scotland’s Drew Christie.
15.26 “What’s going on?” asked Marvin Gaye. Not a lot,
Marvin, not a lot. Australia have beaten Wales, ranked 30 places below them
in the world in hockey, 5-1, which is no great surprise. Oh and our own Oliver
Brown tweets…
15.10 From the BBC:
Your jokes, please.
15.05 Chris Sherrington of Scotland is guaranteed at least a silver in
the judo now.
We also have a report in on England’s triathlon victory, courtesy of my
colleague Ben Bloom who is covering this from Glasgow rather than an
office in Victoria, the lucky so so.
The theory leading into the race was that the English quartet simply had
to avoid any mishaps and victory would surely be theirs.
That logic was put to the test though, most notably by Kirsten Sweetland,
who gave Canada the lead after the opening leg, and a quite brilliant bike
ride from Nicky Samuels on the third for New Zealand.
14.58 So seven hours or so to go in today’s liveblog and I bring you
news that Usain Bolt will run in the 4x100m relay.
14.53 It’s fair to say today hasn’t been anywhere near as good a day as
yesterday for Scotland, but their steady accumulation of medals continues.
Robert Conway Irene Edgar get silver in the Lawn Bowls – Mixed B2/B3
Pairs to take their total number of medals to 17.
Elsewhere, Wales are 3-0 down at half time to Australia, the world’s number
one-ranked hockey team and The Cook Islands lead Trinidad Tobago 33-5
in the sevens.
14.37 The shooting is terrifying to watch. My screen looks like the DVD
cover of a cheap thriller.
14.33 The women’s individual sprint semi-finals are coming up in an
hour and a half or so at the Chris Hoy Velodrome. England’s Jess Varnish
will face the great Anna Meares.
14.18 Here’s a sight to make you all happy: Emma Ecodu of Uganda
scoring at the death against Australia.
14.14 New Zealand get a penalty and the kicker Kaka (not him) boots to
touch, which is met by a chorus of boos from the Ibrox crowd. That seems a
little unfair. Scotland concede a free kick at the lineout and New Zealand
put it out to complete the win. Scotland will be very confident after that
though. Full time New Zealand 17-14 Scotland.
14.12 New Zealand are looking shattered here and are down to five men
thanks to a pair of quick yellow cards. Scotland nearly butcher a chance but
Lee Jones squirts under a couple of tackles and goes over! It’s converted,
making it Scotland 14-17 New Zealand. Minute to go.
14.09 It works though as they get up the field and Lee Jones darts over
for the try after a nice switch in play by Stuart Hogg. It’s converted and
that makes it 17-7 to New Zealand.
14.08 Scotland actually just kicked a penalty to touch. In sevens. That
won’t endear them to anyone.
14.03 And that’s the third on the stroke of half time. Stowers
stepping, flummoxing the defence and jinking towards the referee before
gliding through the gap and riding the last desperate tackle. 17-0 at the
break and it looks like Scotland v Canada will be an effective knock-out
match.
14.02 Stowers goes over in the corner for a brilliant second try to New
Zealand. 12-0 they lead.
13.58 As New Zealand, who have never lost at the Commonwealth Games and
have never lost to Scotland in either sevens or full rugby, run in the
opening try, we get our first email of the day courtesy of Peter Dawe.
Some years ago, Usain Bolt incurred criticism for prematurely celebrating
winning a race as being disrespectful to his opponents.. This week, we’ve
seen Alistair Brownlee twice treat the run-in to the Triathlon finish as a
triumphal progress, yet nobody says a word. Double standards?
I have to say it does sound like it. I didn’t really have any problem with
Bolt, nor with George North when he taunted Will Genia during the Lions
series, and so I don’t have any problem with this. But yeah, I agree that it
does feel somewhat parochial.
13.55 That’s it in the sevens: England 57-0 Sri Lanka. Now at a packed
Ibrox it’s the big one: New Zealand v Scotland. The hosts have 15-a-side
stars Stuart Hogg and Sean Lamont in the squad.
13.50 England have passed the 40-point mark against Sri Lanka now.
Elsewhere, here’s the story on Mick Gault’s record-equalling win.
The 60-year-old grandfather from Norfolk, competing in his sixth Games,
equalled the record for Commonwealth medals in any sport by bagging an
astonishing 18th podium place.
The 60-year-old grandfather from Norfolk, competing in his sixth Games,
equalled the record for Commonwealth medals in any sport by bagging an
astonishing 18th podium place.
13.46 That’s a second gold apiece for A Brownlee and Jodie Stimpson.
South Africa get silver and Australia bronze.
13.44 Sissons of New Zealand rather badly messed things up on the bike
there, sitting back and probably costing his team a podium slot. Brownlee
cruises home and England have won triathlon gold.
13.40 In triathlon news New Zealand have fallen right back and England
have a lead of 1m 6s from Canada going into the run. Gold is theirs now.
In rugby, England have bagged four tries in the first half to lead Sri Lanka
26-0.
13.31 Brownlee’s lead has been pushed up to 13 seconds in the swim, but
he’ll almost certainly have enough to leave the others for dead in the run.
And in heartwarming news…
England v Sri Lanka is next.
13.26 This is a brilliant run from Jodie Stimpson and England’s lead
will be much more than I predicted. She’s lapped Thompson of Scotland now
and Alistair Brownlee goes into the pool with a 9-second lead.
13.22 In the rugby Australia, after being given a soft opening fixture
against Sri Lanka, are now 29-0 up against Uganda. Canada, who were spanked
39-0 in the opening match by New Zealand, have beaten Barbados 68-5. New
Zealand v Barbados kicks off at 8.20pm.
Meanwhile Stimpson is getting away from Samuels in the running leg and will
hand over to Commonwealth Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee with a
lead of a second or two, I’ll wager.
13.20 Nicky Samuels, New Zealand’s third-leg athlete, has reeled in
Stimpson and it’s almost neck and neck as they approach the mile run. Does
anyone know why the run is a mile and the rest measured in km?
13.14 Scotland have lost 71-14 to New Zealand at netball, so let’s have
another nice thing about Scotland: Iain Glen, who’s always great.
13.09 Jodie Stimpson has now taken over from Brownlee, who gave her a
16 second lead after a great run. She goes into the water and comes out of
it still 11 seconds clear.
13.03 Jonathan Brownlee makes a good break on the bike and gets a lead
of 2.5s but he’s reeled in and Canada are making up good time in the run,
although Brownlee should get well ahead over this mile. The Scottish rider,
coming in a mile behind everyone else on the bike, runs over his own foot.
12.56 After the first leg in the relay England are down in fourth place
behind leaders Canada as well as Northern Ireland and New Zealand. Jonathan
Brownlee makes up ground though.
12.53 Party hard, as Andrew WK said.
12.49 As I was saying, while we focussed on interviews with swimmers
and the start of the triathlon, off-screen there was a moment of history as
England’s Mick Gault, who came out of retirement at the age of 60, equalled
the record for the most ever Commonwealth Games medals by claiming bronze in
the 10m air pistol shooting. Well done, him.
12.43 I have to say the BBC’s coverage hasn’t be brilliant, with a lot
of focus on montages and video packages.
12.40 My colleague Giles Mole has handily put together this story of
England’s heartbreaking netball defeat. Why not have a read?
The gripping Pool B tussle at the SECC venue looked to be going England’s
way as they led until the final quarter, but a forceful courtside pep talk
from Australia coach Lisa Alexander steeled the Diamonds for a late surge.
They drew level and then traded points with England until, inside the final
minute and with the tension rising, Harten failed to make her shot, which
bounced off the rim to hand the initiative to the Australians.
You
can read the full story here.
12.33 That’s Jones’s third medal of the day after she took silver in
the clubs and ball events. Her team-mate also took bronze in the ball. There
was also good news for Wales in the sevens as they beat Malaysia 52-0. It’s
not been the most competitive of starts to the rugby, you have to say.
The triathlon is underway now, with the Brownlees in action for hot favourites
England.
12.25 We have a gold for Wales! Frankie Jones has beaten the
odds and favourite Patrica Bezzoubenko to take first place in the ribbon
event.
12.08 Quick cycling update before I go and grab some lunch.
11.58 After their spanking in the rugby earlier, Canada will be pleased
that Patricia Bezzoubenko has her fourth gold medal of the games in Rhythmic
gymnastics – Ball. For England, there’s good news in the pool as Fran
Halsall sets a new British record of 25.64 seconds in the 50m fly.
Wales have kicked off their rugby sevens campaign against Malaysia and are
19-0 to the good. Despite featuring Will Harries, once of my team
Northampton Saints, I don’t fancy Wales’ chances of a medal at these games
although they should win this match easily enough.
There was heartbreak earlier for England’s netballers when Australia’s Caitlin
Bassett scored the winner in the dying seconds.
11.52 Tears will be washing through the valleys right now, coursing
their way down to the Severn and splashing up on to the M4, cascading down
to Cardiff, Swansea and Newport*: Wales have lost 3-0 to Australia at table
tennis.
*My Welsh geography isn’t great.
11.35 In the pool, Scotland’s Hannah Miley has reached tonight’s 200m
breaststroke final, while England’s Chris Walker-Hebborn is into the men’s
50m backstroke final. Both of those will be looking to add to the gold
medals they’ve already won this evening.
11.26 Euan Barton and Gemma Gibbons, Scotland’s husband and wife judo
duo, have won their respective quarter finals.
11.11 We have a tweet from Thomas Lydon, who is hoping for more
British success today, I guess.
I’m afraid it’s finished Australia 62-7 Sri Lanka.
11.07 Sri Lanka, midway through the second half, have got the ball for
the first time in the match and have in fact scored! That makes it 50-7 to
Australia. Here’s a shot of the New Zealand v Canada match.
11.00 England’s netball players are in tears after a late 49-48 defeat.
10.56 One minute to go and it’s England 48-48 Australia. Speaking of
Australia, they’re now playing Sri Lanka in the sevens and have scored
straight from the kick-off. It’s 10-0 after less than two minutes and this
could be painful.
There’s been a great performance for Scotland in the swimming, where Cameron
Brodie finished ahead of Olympic gold medalist Chad le Clos in the heats.
It’s 22-0 to Australia now in the sevens.
10.48 Who’d have thought netball would be such a physical sport?
Players are being dumped all over the place in a thriller between England
and Australia, with the Australians leading 43-42 with eight minutes to go.
Not so close is the rugby. New Zealand, who play the hosts at lunchtime today,
are running in tries quicker than I can type and have just beaten Canada
39-0. I lost count in the end, but I think that’s eight tries for NZ.
10.33 England currently hold a one-point lead ub a tense battle with
Australia, while New Zealand v Canada has kicked off in the rugby and, as I
write this, the favourites have just scored the opening try to take a 7-0
lead through Bryce Heem.
Meanwhile in light of some rather nasty tweets yesterday, here’s thing I love
about Scotland Number One.
Oh it’s 12-0 to New Zealand now.
10.13 So I’ll be here to guide you through the next 12 hours (gulp!)
and to my mind there’s one clear highlight today: the start of the rugby
sevens. For those not familiar with the shortened format of the game, it’s
as breathless, physical, skilled and fast a sport as they come and it gets
underway in 15 minutes or so. Before then, let’s have a look at what’s
already happened today.
Veteran Mick Gault, looking for a record-equalling 18th Commonwealth Games
medal has recovered from a bad start to qualify for the skeet shooting final
in 5th place. The first medal of today went to Themida Christodoulidou
(Cyprus) in the Rhythmic gymnastics – Individual hoop. England’s Stephani
Sherlock came fifth and Laura Halford of Wales was down in seventh. In the
lawn bowls, Australia lead Scotland 17-11 after End 17.
09.53 Morning folks and welcome to day three of the Commonwealth Games
from a glorious, sunny, lovely Glasgow. Yesterday was a great day for both
England and Scotland, so let’s all play nice today, yes, Twitter? Good. The
action got underway early this morning, while I was still tucking into my
bowl of haggis and Irn Bru Special K, so we’ll waste no
time. Here’s what’s coming up today, folks.
Saturday 26 July
SWIMMING
10:30–13:00 Heats. Men: Para-Sport 200m Freestyle S14. 100m Freestyle. 50m
Backstroke. 200m Butterfly. Heats: W 200m Breaststroke. 50m Butterfly. 4 x
200m Freestyle Relay.
19:00–21:45 Semi-finals. Men: 100m Freestyle. 50m Backstroke. Finals. Men:
Para-Sport 200m Freestyle S14. 100m Breaststroke. 200m Butterfly.
Semi-finals W 50m Butterfly. Final. Women: 50m Freestyle. 100m Backstroke.
200m Breaststroke. 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay
BADMINTON
09:00-12:30 Teams Group Play Stage.
18:30–22:30 Quarter-finals. Teams
BOXING
13:00 – 17:00 Preliminaries. Men: Fly (52kg). Light (60kg). Light Welter
(64kg).
18:30–22:30 Preliminaries. Men: Light Fly (49kg). Bantam (56kg). Middle
(75kg).
CYCLING
11:00 – 14:15 Qualifiers. Men: Para-Sport Sprint B Tandem. 40km Points Race.
Semi-final. Men: Para-Sport Sprint B Tandem. Qualifiers. Women: Sprint.
Quarter-final. Women: Sprint.
16:00 – 19:30 Final. Men: Para-Sport Sprint B Tandem. 1000m Time Trial. 40km
Points Race. Semi-final. Women: Sprint. Women: Sprint (5th-8th). Final: 10km
Scratch Race.
RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS
09:30–12:30 Final. Women: Apparatus Finals: Hoop, Ball, Clubs, Ribbon
HOCKEY
09:00–12:30 Preliminaries. Men: New Zealand v Trinidad and Tobago, Malaysia v
Canada.
14:00–17:30 Preliminaries. Men: Australia v Wales, India v Scotland.
JUDO
10:00–16:00 Preliminaries, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals Repechage.
Men: -90kg, -100kg, +100kg. Women: -78kg, +78kg.
18:00–20:45 Finals. Men: -90kg, -100kg, +100kg. Women: -78kg, +78kg.
LAWN BOWLS
08:45–15:00 Men: Pairs Round 5. Triples Round 5. Women: Singles Round 5. Fours
Round 5. Final: Para-Sport Mixed Pairs B2/B3.
16:45–19:45 Quarter-finals. Men: Pairs. Triples. Women: Singles. Fours.
NETBALL
09:30–13:00 Preliminaries. Australia v England, Scotland v New Zealand.
15:00–20:30 Preliminaries. South Africa v Barbados, Saint Lucia v Malawi,
Wales v Trinidad and Tobago.
RUGBY SEVENS
10:30–15:00 Preliminaries. New Zealand v Canada, Australia v Sri Lanka, Kenya
v Cook Islands, Samoa v Papua New Guinea, Wales v Malaysia, South Africa v
Trinidad and Tobago, Canada v Barbados, Australia v Uganda, England v Sri
Lanka, New Zealand v Scotland, Papua New Guinea v Malaysia, Cook Islands v
Trinidad and Tobago.
18:00–22:30 Preliminaries. Scotland v Barbados, England v Uganda, Wales v
Papua New Guinea, Samoa v Malaysia, South Africa v Cook Islands, Kenya v
Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand v Barbados, Sri Lanka v Uganda, Canada v
Scotland, Samoa v Wales, England v Australia, South Africa v Kenya.
SHOOTING
08:45–18:00 Qualifiers. Men: Skeet. 10m Air Pistol. Final. Men: Skeet. 10m Air
Pistol. Qualifiers. Women: 25m Pistol. 10m Air Rifle.
Final. Women: 10m Air Rifle. 25m Pistol. Final. Queen’s Prize Pairs.
SQUASH
12:30–16:30 Men: Singles Classic Plate Round of 16. Singles Consolation Plate
Round of 16. Quarter-finals. Men: Singles. Women: Singles. Singles
consolation plate.
18:00–21:00 Quarter-finals. Men: Singles. Singles Classic Plate. Singles
Plate. Singles Consolation Plate. Quarter-finals. Women: Singles. Singles
Plate.
TABLE TENNIS
09:30–14:30 Quarter-final, classifications. Men: Team. Quarter-final,
classifications. Women: Team.
16:00–21:00 Quarter-final, classifications. Men: Team. Quarter-final,
classifications. Women: Team.
TRIATHLON
12:30–14:30 Team Relay
WEIGHTLIFTING
10:00–12:00 Preliminaries. Men: 69kg Group B.
15:30–18:00 Finals. Women: 58kg Group A.
19:30–22:00 Finals. Men: 69kg Group A.
Commonwealth Games 2014: live - Telegraph
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