GC2018: Day 6 Highlights

SHARP SHOOTER PHELPS WINS RIFLE GOLD AS TEAM WALES REACH 22 MEDALS

Birthday delight for Phelps to repeat Prone 50m Rifle triumph 12 years on

Silver for Morris and Watson in Queen’s Prize Pairs

Davies, Jervis and Women’s IM relay claim medals on last night of swimming

Melissa Courtney wins 1500m athletics bronze

Wales 7th in medal table after day 6 (7 Gold, 8 Silver, and 7 bronze)

Also today:

Men’s Hockey take one of tournament favourites to the brink

11 year old Anna Hursey impresses on her last day of action

Squash doubles make comfortable start

Salmon leaps to three singles bowls victories


SHOOTING

Shooter David Phelps joined Team Wales’s gold rush on day 6 of the Commonwealth Games, as he claimed victory in the Men’s 50m Prone Rifle Competition.

Phelps, from Cardiff, celebrated his 41st birthday in style to reclaim the title he won 12 years previously in Melbourne.

He used all his experience to qualify for the final, alongside an array of Commonwealth champions and Olympic medallists. And it proved to be his day, as triumphed with a total score of 248.8 defeating Scotland’s Neil Stirton in the final elimination round.

“I can’t describe it,” Phelps said afterwards. “Winning the first one (at Melbourne 2006) and then winning a second one. I can’t believe it. So many things I want to say, but I can’t. Words escape me. It’s the best. The absolute best.

“My friends and family have come halfway around the world to see me and I’ve given them something to watch.

“It’s one of the best birthdays. I can’t think of any that have topped it. I’m over the moon. I never expected this. Making the final was my goal, but this is just – wow!”

In the same competition, Mike Bamsey, competing less than 48 hours after his first event, placed 18th on a challenging range where a list of world champions and the local Australians struggled to score high points.

Earlier, Gaz Morris & Chris Watson continued their excellent form in the Queen’s Prize Pairs, despite a strong and gusty wind. Many teams struggled with the conditions, but the Welsh duo shot to win a silver medal. It was evidence of their recent progress, having finished 5th in Glasgow, and they will now be confident heading into the individual competitions tomorrow.

SWIMMING

Daniel Jervis won silver in the 1500m freestyle, while Georgia Davies won bronze in the 50m backstroke and the 4x100m medley relay final on the final night of the swimming competition in Gold Coast.

A brilliant swim from Jervis saw him upgrade the bronze he won in Glasgow after he beat his lifetime best by three seconds, finishing behind Australia’s Jack McLoughlin who added a gold to his silver from the 400m freestyle event.

Davies won bronze in the women’s 50m backstroke final. The 27-year-old, defending her Commonwealth title, had clocked the fastest time in qualifying, but was beaten in what was almost a photo finish on the line. It was a third successive Games medal for Davies in the event.

The Wales 4x100m medley relay team of Davies, Chloe Tutton, Alys Thomas and Kathryn Greenslade won bronze as they beat the national record by five seconds.

However, Xavier Castelli was denied as he finished eighth in the men’s 200m individual medley final and Ellena Jones failed to qualify for the final of the women’s 400 metre freestyle which Jazz Carlin opted not to compete in.

It means that the swimming squad leave Gold Coast with a haul of 5 medals – 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze.

ATHLETICS

Melissa Courtney won bronze in the Women’s 1500m final, a fourth athletics medal for the team so far.

After a delayed start, Melissa stayed calm and controlled, moving her way through the field to leave herself in fourth coming into the home straight. Showing excellent strength she pulled past Linden Hall of Australia to come home in third in a big PB time of 4.03:44.

”I’m in complete shock, can’t believe I ran that fast. I can’t believe it. I felt strong in the last 100m, the crowd were going crazy, and I’d tried to pretend the crowd were cheering for me as I came past the Aussie. I’ve got so many family and fans out here, its my first big final, and it went so well. The team is so close, its been really special.

“In 2015 I was diagnosed with a metabolic condition which I’ve had to overcome. My coach and family have helped me through this, and having been inspired by being there watching at Glasgow, I knew I had to be here. I’ve still got the 5,000m to come now and I’m looking forward to that too.”

Ben Gregory got off to a solid start on Day 2 of the Men’s Decathlon as he raced to a third place finish in his 110m Hurdles Heat in a time of 15.16. He did well to stay on his feet after hitting the first couple of hurdles before finishing strongly to put himself in 9th place overall after six events. 

In the Discus Throw, Ben’s best attempt of 38.85m came in the first round and was enough to get him 10th place in the event. The final event of the morning session was the Pole Vault, where Ben cleared heights of 4.60m and 4.80m. Then he attempted 5.00m but as the winds picked up he was unable to produce a clearance, and finished 4th in Pool A with 4.80m as his final height. 

In the javelin, he threw 57.30 metres to gain 697 points, putting him in a strong position ahead of the final event of the competition.

Gregory dominated the final event of the competition, the 1500m, taking it from the front to win in a time of 4:30.

The Birchfield Harrier finished in 7th place overall with 7449 points. Curtis Matthews sadly did not finish the competition.

The heavens opened for the Women’s Hammer Throw final with Rhondda’s Carys Parry battling against the conditions at the Carrara Stadium. Carys’s second round throw of 61.58 metres placed her in 6th overall.

Caryl Granville finished 8th in Heat 2 of the Women’s 400m Hurdles in a time of 59.28. Her 8th placed finish wasn’t enough to see her qualify for the final, but it was a spirited performance from the Swansea Harrier, who will be back for the 100m Hurdles Heats on Thursday morning. 

POWERLIFTING

Bridgend’s Nathan Stephens added to his long list of sporting achievements by competing in the Men’s Lightweight Powerlifting final at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

Stephens, who celebrates his 30th birthday tomorrow, is former F57 javelin world champion and world record holder, three time Paralympian, including as GB sledge hockey player at the Winter Paralympics. He is one of the biggest names in Disability Sport and is also a key figure in developing the next generation of talent for Disability Sport Wales.

But this latest sporting adventure provided a first opportunity to represent Wales at a major multi-sport Games.

He brought his top level experience to bear in a tough competition, successfully lifting 140kg  to finish 10th in a strong field.

Later Nerys Pearce made her Commonwealth Games debut in the women’s heavyweight event. The former Army medic, who first came to prominence in the Invictus Games, enjoyed the big stage, finishing fourth after completing a first round press of 75kgs.

MEN’S HOCKEY

Wales’ Men’s Hockey came within four minutes of a famous upset in  their final pool match of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as England scored a late winner to put book a place in the semi-finals.

Sam Ward scored a second-half hat-trick as England overturned a two-nil deficit to win 3-2.

Wales was the better side in the first half, capitalising almost immediately when English defender Ollie Willars was sin-binned.

Captain Luke Hawker deflected home a brilliant pass into the circle to give the big pre-match underdogs a 1-0 lead.

On the stroke of half-time, a clumsy effort from English defender Liam Sanfordgave Wales a penalty corner. After two unsuccessful attempts, Benjamin Francis deflected a pass into the net.

After the break, England returned to the field a changed side, with Ward scoring his first goal after a sustained period of attacking play.

The team continued to press for an equaliser and with 12 minutes remaining, Ward scored again, this time firing home a brilliant penalty corner flick.

Wales fought hard for a draw, but with just three minutes left the prolific forward scored the winner.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Wales who had raised their game against a side who are hotly tipped to win the gold.

Captain Luke Hawker said, “I’m very disappointed. I felt we could have gone on and got the next goal after going 2-0 up. It was still pleasing that we took our early chances.

“We played good hockey but we didn’t have the ball as much and we spent longer in defence.

“The lads have shown we can play at this level and we are a force to be reckoned with.”

James Carson added: “We play these boys week in and week out back home in our domestic league (English national competition), and we’re skilfully the same, but they’ve played more high-level hockey.”

CYCLING

Teenager Peter Kibble finished in a respectable 15th position in the Individual Time Trial at Currumbin Beachfront on Tuesday morning.

Kibble is the youngest rider in the Welsh road race squad and headed the pack in the early stages but slipped down the order as the morning went on.

Australian Cameron Meyer was a shock winner having only entered a fortnight ago.

SQUASH

As the first day of the doubles got underway Wales had a successful day on the squash courts here at the Gold Coast.

There was no time to rest for Bronze medallist Tesni Evans as she had two matches today, one with Deon Saffrey in the women’s doubles and another with Peter Creed in the mixed doubles. Wales won both group games comfortably against Malta and Kenya respectively.

Wales’ Joel Makin and Peter Creed also came out on top in the men’s doubles against Sierra Leone.

Evans said: “I couldn’t sleep after yesterday. Getting that bronze has been the highlight of my career so far but now all my focus is on the doubles and I’m happy with our performances today.”

TABLE TENNIS

11 year old Anna Hursey made her Commonwealth Games bow in the Women’s Singles at Oxenfarm Studios, cruising past Uganda’s Halima Nambozo 4-0 in her opening match.

However Wales’ youngest competitor had her work cut out in her next match against Li Sian Alice Chang of Malaysia with 126 places separating the pair in the rankings.

Hursey gave it her all but the experience of Chang bore out and the 17-year-old went on to triumph 4-0.

Meanwhile Chloe Thomas comfortably won both her matches without dropping a game, first seeing off Pakistan’s Fatima Khan and then Angelisa Freemann of St Kitts and Nevis.

Joshua Stacey‘s first match in the Men’s TT6-10 Singles ended in defeat by the odd game in five in a competitive match.

He took the first and fourth games to take it to the wire but his opponent, Kim Daybell of England, claimed the fifth and final game to take victory.

NETBALL

Wales say they’re planning to bounce back from a difficult few days in their final pool match of the Netball tournament against Malawi tomorrow.

Tonight, they went down 40 – 76 to Uganda which leaves them rooted to the bottom of Pool B and still searching for their first win of the games.

Wales made some good early opportunities for themselves but failed to convert. Still it was a far more settled start than in their previous three Commonwealth Games assignments. But unforced turnovers proved to be their undoing. 

Wales performed at the start of the third quarter, but Uganda had already established a substantial lead. Wales brought on Georgia Rowe and moved Chelsea Lewis to goal attack in their search for more goals, but Uganda continued to find space on court.

Nia Jones received a warning from officials and the penalty count passed the 60-mark during the fourth period. Wales had made 42 feeds into the circle by this point but with a good conversion figure of 35.  But it was difficult to find positives in what was a disappointing performance.

Wales will now look to put things right in their final match of Pool B, against Malawi tomorrow at 10.00am (UK time).

LAWN BOWLS

Daniel Salmon beat Brendan Aquilina (21-18), Taiki Paniani (21-17) and Aaron Wilson (21-13) in the Men’s Singles.

Women’s Pairs beat Jersey. The Mixed B2/B3 Pairs lost their semi-final, while the Men’s Fours beat Canada. The Women’s Triples beat Namibia twice.


For a full schedule for Team Wales on Wednesday 11th April, please  go to: https://results.gc2018.com/en/all-sports/schedule-wales.htm