Australia on Sunday won the first women’s cricket gold medal in Commonwealth Games history, as Scotland’s Laura Muir captured the 1,500m title on the final night of athletics.
On the penultimate day of competition in Birmingham, England’s women won hockey gold and Australia beat Jamaica in the netball final.
With just a few events remaining yesterday, Australia was leading the way with 66 golds, 11 ahead of hosts England.
Photo: AFP
Hot favorites Australia held their nerve to beat India by nine runs in a Twenty20 thriller in front of a big Edgbaston crowd.
Opener Beth Mooney top-scored with 61 as Australia made 161-8 in their 20 overs in the warm sunshine.
India appeared to be on course for a shock win when they were cruising at 118-2, but the dismissals of Jemimah Rodrigues (33) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (65) sapped their momentum and they fell frustratingly short.
Australia partied on the pitch as the lights went out around the stadium.
“It’s absolutely huge,” left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen said. “We are blessed enough to be part of some winning World Cup teams but to win the first gold medal for women’s cricket in the Commonwealth Games, you’re only ever going to do that once.”
Victory underlines the dominance of Australia’s women, who are also world champions in the 20-over and 50-over formats.
In the bronze medal match earlier on Sunday, New Zealand coasted to an eight-wicket win over England.
Muir ended her Commonwealth Games campaign with a flourish by winning gold in the 1,500m at the Alexander Stadium.
The 29-year-old’s teammate, 10,000m champion Eilish McColgan, just failed in her bid for memorable double, finishing second behind Kenya’s impressive world silver medalist Beatrice Chebet in the women’s 5,000m.
Muir, who won bronze in the 800m on Saturday, kicked for glory before the bell and ran a fairly moderate field — lacking two-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon — ragged, timing 4 minutes, 02.75 seconds.
The Olympic silver medalist was overjoyed, having failed to medal in 2014 and missing the 2018 Games due to veterinary exams.
“You learn from it and your time will come,” said Muir. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Eight years of Commonwealths and it’s been bugging me so this means a lot.”
Wyclife Kinyamal defended his men’s 800m crown in a time of 1:47.52. It was an impressive turnaround for the 25-year-old, who finished last in the final of the World Athletics Championships last month in Eugene, Oregon.
“Eugene was disappointing, but it is just like any race,” he said. “Because if today you win, tomorrow you lose. I guess because I failed there, I looked forward to coming here to defend my title.”
New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate won the men’s road race to collect his fourth gold medal of the Commonwealth Games.
“Three felt great and I was super happy with that,” said Gate, who won three track events earlier in the Games. “I came here today and managed to help the team, and if the opportunity arose to go for a fourth one I just had to grab it with both hands.”
In the women’s race, Australia’s Georgia Baker won her third gold of the games.
England won hockey gold for the first time after holding off a fightback from Australia to win 2-1.
Second-quarter goals from Holly Hunt and Tess Howard ultimately provided decisive 24 hours after the men’s team had suffered semi-final despair at the hands of Australia.
There was more joy for Australia in the netball competition, with a 55-51 over Jamaica in the final.
Australia also shone at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, wrapping up the diving competition in style.
Cassiel Rousseau took the men’s 10m platform title and Maddison Keeney won her second gold of the games in the women’s 3m springboard.
England’s Delicious Orie won super heavyweight gold on a busy night of boxing, beating India’s Sagar Ahlawat.
India won three other golds in boxing, but Northern Ireland took five, including a special double for Aidan Walsh and his sister Michaela Walsh.
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