Team Wales DAY 3 Summary
Team Wales scoop 6 medals on Super Sunday!
- 6 medals won in total on Day 3
- 2x Swimming, 4x Track Cycling
- Strong performances across the sports
SWIMMING
A medal run in the evening session with Lily Rice and Medi Harris both winning Bronze in their finals. Joe Small (Medi’s boyfriend) also qualified for the men’s 50m backstroke final with a time of 25:36. Matt Richards missing out on qualifying this time, although will likely be back for the men’s 200m relay.
Another semi final for Harriet sees her qualifying for the 50m butterfly final.
MEN’S GYMNASTICS
Joe Cemlyn-Jones unfortunately had to withdraw from the Men’s Artistic All Around Final this morning due to a shoulder injury and was replaced by 19 year old Jacob Edwards who placed only 0.50 behind Joe in the qualification event. Both Josh Cook and Jacob Edwards had impressive competitions on all pieces of apparatus and finished above their qualification rankings with Jacob finishing in 10th place and Josh Cook in 12th.
Jacob Edwards was able to be joined by his personal coach and father on the floor, Paul Edwards. A special moment for both father and son.
HOCKEY
A worrying start for the Welsh men’s game vs England as accomplished player Sam Ward slotted in a lovely drag flick in only the second minute. The tables soon turned and the rest of the first quarter was very competitive with some excellent defending at penalty corners. Wales leveled the score at 18 minutes with a stunning goal; Steve Kelly’s powerful reverse flick was deflected over the goalkeeper’s head by Lewis Prosser. Following two Welsh yellow cards in immediate succession England found the goal a second time through a penalty corner. Wales’ second goal came in the 52nd minute after James Carson smashed a high deflected ball into the net. Despite this impressive attack England shortly retaliated to win the game 4-2.
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
In their first Commonwealth Games All Around Finals, Poppy Stickler and Jea Maracha gave the performances of their lives to secure 5th and 10th place respectively, amazing achievements for the two 16 year olds. Both had clean competitions with Poppy’s floor particularly engaging the arena’s enthusiastic crowd. The support in the crowd was incredible with special mention going to the daffodil clad team from Swansea and Llanelli Gymnastics Clubs.
MEN’S RUGBY 7s
It’s been a thrilling 3 days in the Coventry Arena. The men’s competition came to an end this morning after a tight 12 – 14 defeat to England. The support for the squad has been wonderful – hundreds of red shirts in the stands, and queues of fans asking for photos and signatures long after their match had finished. The tournament may not have ended the way the boys hoped, but their Welsh fanbase are only full of pride for their team.
TRACK CYCLING
A fantastic day for Team Wales at the Lee Valley VeloPark, winning three medals overall, taking their total in east London to six medals and matching their haul at Gold Coast 2018.
They were guaranteed a fourth track cycling medal going into the Men’s Tandem B Sprint semi-finals in the morning. James Ball and Matt Rotherham finished second fastest in the qualifiers (9.851) while Alex Pope and Steffan Lloyd made the last four with a time of 10.401.
Pope and Lloyd met Neil Fachie and Lewis Stewart in the first semi-final but the Scottish pairing won the first two phases to reach the bronze medal final, where Australia’s Beau Wootton and Luke Zaccaria eventually proved too strong.
Ball and Rotherham then saw off the Australian pair in their best-of-three, teeing up a showdown against their old adversary Fachie and a repeat of the final four years ago.
This time around, the Welsh pair took the first two phases to take Wales’ first gold medal of Birmingham 2022 to avenge defeat in Queensland.
Eluned King picked up the second medal of the afternoon, collecting 32 points across 10 sprints on her way to a bronze medal in the Women’s 25km Points Race. Jess Roberts and Anna Morriss finished 10th and 15th respectively.
“I’m really surprised and grateful,” King said afterwards.
“I don’t think it’s going to sink in for a while. I’ve grown up with this team so this is special. My family isn’t here today so this is for them.”
Rhys Britton, Joe Holt and William Roberts reached the Men’s 15km Scratch Race final, the final event of the day. The qualifiers were overshadowed by a serious crash involving half the field with England’s Matthew Walls taken to hospital for ‘precautionary checks’.
Roberts produced a stunning performance to finish in the top three, adding a bronze medal at the end of the session to leave Wales fourth in the medal table for track cycling.
Elsewhere Eleanor Victoria Coster notched 35.116 in the Women’s 500m Time Trial. Lowri Thomas withdrew from the event after yesterday’s fall on the track so Emma Finucane came in, posting a time of 33.916.
Nia Holt and Amy Cole went out first in the Women’s Tandem B 1000m Time Trial, recording a time of 1.13.435.
WEIGHTLIFTING – MICAHEL FARMER 73KG
23-year-old Michael Farmer made his Commonwealth Games debut this evening in the 73kg weight division. Farmer aced his first lift of 128kg in the snatch, however struggled to lift the further two snatches of 131kg. Moving on to the clean and jerk, the first to rounds did not go Michael’s way. The crowd got behind the lifter for the third and final round and roared as he cleared his lift of 155kg.
SQUASH
Squash (Men’s singles round of 16) Emyr Evans produced a superb performance to take the opening game against World number 2, Paul Coll, but the New Zealander eventually defeated Evans 8-11, 11-0, 11-5, 12-10 to progress through to the quarter finals.
Squash (Women’s singles round of 16) A disappointing result for Tesni Evans who lost in 3 to Malaysian player Rachel Arnold. It was a really tense match with Arnold eventually winning 19-17, 11-7, 11-7.
Emily Whitlock took an impressive and speedy 3-0 victory over Australia’s Donna Lobban. Emily took the first set 13-11, the second 11-7 and the third 11-3. She will now face England’s Sarah Jane Perry in the quarter final at 19:30.
Joel Makin faced Scotland’s Alan Clyne in the men’s singles round of 16. Mistakes from the Scot saw Joel take an early lead and despite long, dramatic rallys and several challenges Joel took a 3-0 win. Winning 11-3, 11-4, 11-4. Overall a dominant display from the number 2 seed.
TABLE TENNIS
Over three hours played and the maximum games played, once again the result came down to the wire, despite wins from Carey and Hursey in the single pairings of the match. Despite constantly being a grasp away from securing the Gold Medal Match and a guaranteed medal, the dropped points stopped their chances. The team now proceed to the Bronze Medal Match against Australia at 9:30. The girls will now head to the match 11 hours and 30 minutes after the end of the Semi Final.
NETBALL
Netball claimed their first win in their Pool A matches with an outstanding performance against Scotland, winning 42-28. Wales were in the lead after the first Quarter 7-12, and went into halftime with a comfortable 15-26 lead. The final Quarter began in Wales’ favour with a 28-41 margin. Scotland closed in during the final Quarter but Wales were too strong and finished with a 6 goal lead. There were double celebrations for the Welsh team as Bethan Dyke received her 50th Cap, winning her first cap in 2014 against the Republic of Ireland.
TRIATHLON
History was made in Triathlon, with Rhys Jones becoming Team Wales’ first ever paratriathlete at a Commonwealth Games. Rhys, and his guide Rhys James produced a solid performance to finish in an impressive 4th place with Team England’s Dave Ellis (and guide Luke Pollard) topping the podium at Sutton Park, Birmingham.
Next up was the Mixed Relay Sprint. Iestyn Harrett, Olivia Mathias, Dominic Coy and Non Stanford produced terrific performances in front of overwhelming support from Welsh fans. Iestyn Harriet led the team to a solid start handing over to Olivia Mathias in 4th position. Olivia produced an impressive leg, finishing 3rd, giving Dominic Coy the perfect opportunity to stay in contention for a podium finish. Non Stanford who completed the quartet with a confident and breath-taking final leg to lead the team with a silver medal and a well deserved place on the podium. For Stanford, this is the final piece in the jigsaw and a fairy-tale ending ahead of her retirement.
