Team Wales DAY 10 Summary
GOLD!
- Gold for Josh in Table Tennis
- Athletics saw lots of Welsh people in the lineup
- 8th place for Geraint Thomas in his last Commonwealth Games
Table Tennis
Joshua Stacey – Gold Medal Match
Josh upgraded his Bronze from Gold Coast to a gold with a win over Ma Lin. A tense start saw the first game won by Josh at 25-23. It came down to a final game decider, but it was Josh who got over the line and claimed the first Gold Table Tennis Medal at the Commonwealth Games!
Women’s Doubles Semi-Final – Charlotte & Anna
Charlotte and Anna progress to the Bronze medal match after falling short to the Singapore duo. They took a 2-1 lead after dropping the first game and clawed their way back. Singapore were able to level the score and their experience came through to claim their spot in the Gold Medal Match.
They will now face the Singapore duo of Xin Ru Wong and Jingyi Zhou in the Bronze Medal Match tomorrow at 9:30 on show court 1.
Cycling – Road Race
Team Wales named six riders in each of the Road Races held on a sweltering day down in Warwick.
The Women set out in the morning with Eluned King leading her team home in eighth position, followed by Jessica Roberts (18th), Leah Dixon (27th), Elinor Barker (41st) and Elynor Backstedt (38th). Megan Barker did not finish.
Flag bearer Geraint Thomas led the charge in the Men’s race, also finishing in eighth after a huge final push in the closing stages of his final appearance in the red shirt of Team Wales.
William Roberts (25th), Luke Rowe (51st), Owain Doull (58th) and Joe Holt (65th) followed behind. Stephen Williams did not finish.
In the end the team finished Birmingham 2022 with seven medals in total, one more than they achieved in Gold Coast four years ago.
“It was tough. I had to be aggressive and force that final move,” Thomas said afterwards.
“Then suddenly I thought ‘wow, this is it’ but I didn’t have another Welshman with me so it made it tough. The fact that a tracker rider [Aaron Gate] won today shows that that was the nature of the course. It was punchy; really explosive – something which I’m not known for.
“I always knew coming into it, it wasn’t the course for me. It’s was quite weird to have a lot of expectation on me to get a medal but I wanted to go out there and give it everything. It’s probably the last time I’ll ever wear a Welsh vest because I’m not going to be doing another Commonwealth Games, definitely.”
Meanwhile at the Alexander Stadium Melissa Courtney-Bryant was in action in the women’s 1500m final and fought hard to claim 10th overall.
Jenny Nesbitt and Beth Kidger flew the flag in the women’s 5000m final in what was a thrilling race with Nesbitt finishing 12th while Kidger crossed the line in 13th position with a PB.
Hockey
In their final game of the competition the Welsh men were fighting New Zealand in the 5th/6th playoff. The two teams were toe to toe for the majority of the game but despite a classic Gareth Furlong drag-flick in the 2nd quarter, two swift New Zealand attacks saw them win the game 2-1. Captain Rupert Shipperly was ‘disappointed because [he] knows they have the talent to beat top 10 sides but [they] didn’t take that opportunity today’
