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Emma Snowsill takes triathlon gold

Emma Snowsill ended Australia's triathlon gold medal drought and Brad Kahlefeldt followed that up with another Commonwealth Games title in the men's race, just for good measure.

Despite its wealth of world champions and contenders, Australia had failed to capture a triathlon gold medal at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games until its dual wins yesterday.

India maintained second place on the medal standings when Samaresh Jung became the first double gold medalist at the 2006 Melbourne Games with two shooting titles Saturday and Yumnam Chanu beat Canada's Emily Quarton to win the women's 58-kilogram weightlifting title.

But a 4-1 loss to archrival Pakistan in the men's field hockey dampened celebrations.

Aussie celebrations were in full swing at the seaside St. Kilda triathlon course.

World champion Snowsill finished in 1 hour, 58 minutes and 2.6 seconds, well ahead of New Zealanders Samantha Warriner and Andrea Hewitt, who held off compatriot Debbie Tanner in a late sprint.

Snowsill was seventh after the swim leg and eighth after the cycle, but surged ahead on her strongest discipline, the run.

"I could feel the energy of the crowd and everyone cheering for me. It was a unique experience," said Snowsill. "I hope I've just done Australia proud."

That prompted the national triathlon coach to declare the gold-medal curse on his athletes had been quashed: "Ding dong, the witch is dead."

Proving that, 26-year-old Kahlefeldt ran past teammate Peter Robertson with about five kilometers to go and was never challenged from then, finishing in 1:49.16 after slowing down to grab an Australian flag at the end.

Joshua Jefferies kept the golden momentum going for the hosts, winning the men's all-around gymnastics final from teammate Philippe Rizzo. The Australians were expecting more gold medals from the nine swimming finals and in the cycling later Saturday.

Jung, who is chasing eight medals at the Melbourne games, kept India ahead of Australia on the shooting ranges after the countries split the golds on the opening day.

He combined with Vivek Singh to win the men's 10m air pistol pairs, overcoming their disappointment at losing their 50m pairs title the previous afternoon.

Jung and Singh shot 1,154, finishing two points ahead of England's Nick Baxter and Mick Gault as both pairs bettered the previous games record of 1,145.

Adding a silver to his opening-day bronze, 51-year-old Gault equaled the record for the most number of Commonwealth Games medals won by an England athlete.

He has 13, equaling swimmer Karen Pickering's haul between 1990 to 2002, and has three move events in Melbourne.

"I'm not quite sure how I feel about the record," said Gault, in his fourth Commonwealth Games. "It's down to me to beat it now."

Jung teamed with Ronak Pandit later to take the 25m standard pistol pairs.

"I came here with expectations of eight medals, and that's intact," Jung said yesterday. "I'm not too happy with the scores, but the gold's a big boost," he said.

England's Mike Babb and Chris Hector took the men's 50m rifle prone pairs gold medal with a score of 1,182, with Scotland's Martin Sinclair and Neil Stirton second with 1,179.

Scotland won its first shooting gold when Susan Jackson and Sheena Sharp shot 1,166 in the women's 50m rifle prone pairs.

The athletics competition starts Sunday, with heats in the men's 100m and the men's marathon highlighting the opening day.

World record holder Asafa Powell will line up in the 100m heats, the self-described "fastest man on earth" starting a campaign for his first gold medal at a major multi-sport international meet.

"Everyone is looking for me to bring a gold back home, and a lot of people in other places are expecting me to win," Powell said.

The 23-year-old Powell is entering his first major international competition since he set the world record last June, clocking 9.77 at Athens to shave 0.01 off Tim Montgomery's previous mark.

He missed the 2005 world champions with an injured groin.

Defending champion Kim Collins is out, but there are eight men in the field with sub-10-second personal bests.

"I'm a little bit anxious, it's my first real competition since the injury," said Powell. "I still have a little fear -- but it's only a mind thing."

Trinidad and Tobago's Marc Burns ran 10-flat to win the World Athletics Final last December, edging Ghana's Aziz Zakari by 0.01.
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