One of the most dramatic scenes at the Commonwealth Games came early on the final day.
Callum Hawkins of Scotland was leading the marathon yesterday morning when he became physically distressed and collapsed with about 2km remaining. Michael Shelley ran past and defended his title.
Hawkins, who had about a two-minute lead over Shelley, first became disoriented in the humid conditions at about the 38km mark of the 42.2km race, briefly holding himself up next to a race barrier to try to regain his balance.
Photo: Reuters
He was able to continue, despite having difficulty running in a straight line, but fell to the road 2km later and after several minutes received medical attention as Shelley raced past him on the course.
“I wasn’t sure what was going on. I had a couple of mates [in the crowd] who said Callum was in a bit of trouble. They told me to keep going and gave me encouragement,” Shelley said. “I just tried to hang on.”
Hawkins was taken to a hospital for testing and Scotland team officials said “there are no major concerns for his welfare at this stage.”
The team shared a message from Hawkins while the closing ceremony was underway, saying: “Thanks for all your messages of support today and to the Gold Coast University Hospital staff. I am now feeling much better.”
Television commentators were critical and there was backlash on social media because of the delay getting medical assistance to Hawkins, particularly after security tried to move away spectators who were attempting to help him.
Shelley finished in 2 hours, 16 minutes and 46 seconds. Munyo Solomon Mutai of Uganda took silver with a time of 2 hours, 19 minutes and 2 seconds, and Robbie Simpson of Scotland won bronze 34 seconds behind Mutai.
In the women’s marathon, Helalia Johannes of Namibia won gold in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 40 seconds with Australians Lisa Weightman and Jess Trengrove taking silver and bronze. Johannes became the first woman from Namibia to win a Commonwealth gold medal.
The closing ceremony included a section for Usain Bolt, who was in town to support his old Jamaica teammates and stepped in to do a guest DJ stint.
The ceremony included a handover to present the Commonwealth Games Federation flag to Birmingham, England, where the 2022 games are to be held.
Elsewhere at the Games yesterday, New Zealand beat Olympic champion Australia 17-12 in extra time in the first-ever women’s rugby sevens final at the Games, reversing the Olympics result at Rio de Janeiro, when the sevens made its first appearance at the Summer Games.
In a packed and raucous stadium at Robina, New Zealand made it two from two in the finals by upsetting Olympic champion Fiji 14-0 for the men’s gold.
In men’s basketball, a day after Canada qualified for the gold medal final with a last-second three-pointer, Australia made sure there were was no chance for any late heroics with an 87-47 win.
Thomas Abercrombie scored 26 points to lead New Zealand, who lost to Canada in the semi-finals, to a 79-69 win over Scotland to take the bronze medal.
In women’s netball, Australia and New Zealand have always played the gold medal final at the Games, but this time, Australia lost the final and New Zealand failed to win a medal.
England caused the biggest of upsets in the final, beating heavily favored Australia 52-51 with a last-second goal.
Earlier, Jamaica beat New Zealand 60-55 in the bronze medal match, meaning the Silver Ferns missed a Games netball medal for the first time.
Three-time Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia overcame a first-game loss to win the men’s badminton gold, beating India’s Srikanth Kidambi 19-21, 21-14, 21-14.
It was an all-Indian final in women’s singles, with Saina Nehwal beating Venkata Pusarla 21-18, 23-21 for gold.
Nehwal, who also won gold as part of India’s mixed team earlier in the tournament, last won the Commonwealth singles title in Delhi in 2010.
In the mixed doubles final, the husband-and-wife team of Chris and Gabrielle Adcock beat the fellow England pair of Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 21-19, 17-21, 21-16.
With all medals decided, Australia overwhelmingly won the medal race, both gold (80) and overall (198).
Second-place England had 45 golds, India 26 and Canada and New Zealand had 15 each.
Australia’s gold total was still short of the 84 they won in Melbourne in 2006.
The biggest surprise in track and field was that Jamaica, featuring the world’s fastest active sprinter and the women’s Olympic 100m and 200m champion, did not win a gold medal in the sprints.
After Yohan Blake on Saturday anchored Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team to bronze, Bolt took to social media to openly question if he had retired too early.
The Jamaicans won 10 gold medals at the Games in Glasgow four years ago, but managed just seven on the Gold Coast.
Caster Semenya completed a middle-distance double by winning the 800m and 1,500m in Games-record times, while her fellow South African Akani Simbine won a coveted 100m title.
Off the fields, there were controversies over the Games’ non-needles policy involving two Indian athletes.
Triple jumper Rakesh Babu and race walker Irfan Kolothum Thodi were banned from the Games and ordered to return home to India immediately after needles were found in the room they shared at the athletes’ village.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but