Asafa Powell stormed to the 100m title while Australian swim queen Leisel Jones smashed the 100m breaststroke world record on a marathon Monday at the Commonwealth Games.
Jones claimed her third gold of the Games while teammate Libby Lenton clinched her fourth with her win in the women’s 50m freestyle as well as helping the 4x100m relay team to victory.
India also had a day to remember. Shooter Samaresh Jung joined the three-gold club, while the country’s table-tennis team pulled off a shock by beating Singapore in the men’s team event.
Pakistan picked up their first gold thanks to weightlifter Shuja-Qud-Din Malik, and even tiny Papua New Guinea grabbed a shock gold when Ryan Pini swam to the men’s 100m butterfly title.
Pini’s unexpected win only served to highlight the continuing misery of Australia’s men’s swimming team, who are still without a gold after 13 finals.
The 23-year-old Powell timed 10,03 seconds to take his first major individual championship, beating Nigeria’s Soji Fasuba while Marc Burns of Trinidad and Tobago took the bronze.
”I’m really excited, it’s a very good feeling,” admitted Powell, who had been injured for most of last year since he broke the world record in Athens. ”I’m just coming out of injury. I’m back on the track and am getting back to my old self.”
Sherri-Ann Brooks made it a double sprint celebration for Jamaica when she won the women’s 100m in a time of 11,19 seconds to see off Geraldine Pillay of South Africa, while Delphine Atangana of Cameroon took the bronze.
Kenyan teenager Augustine Choge outpaced a quality field to win the men’s 5 000m title. The 19-year-old set a new Games record of 12 minutes and 56,41 seconds to see off local favourite Craig Mottram, while world champion Benjamin Limo of Kenya was third.
South Africa’s Janus Robberts won the men’s shot put, Australia’s Brooke Krueger won the women’s hammer and Nathan Deakes and Jane Saville clinched an Australian double in the 20km walks.
Jones delivered the world record the meet craved with a stunning 100m win to claim an unprecedented golden breaststroke treble. The 20-year-old headlined another overpowering performance by the Australian women, who now have 13 swimming golds.
”I was shocked as I haven’t been feeling the best all week,” Jones said.
Lenton won the 50m freestyle, Joanna Fargus took the 200m backstroke and Sophie Edington the 50m backstroke, while Australia just missed out on the world record in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Lenton, Jodie Henry, Alice Mills were well under world-record pace heading into the last leg swam by Shayne Reese only to miss out by just 0,55 seconds.
Another highlight was Pini’s victory in the 100m butterfly. The 25-year-old beat Australia’s former world champion and world-record holder Michael Klim for the gold.
”Towards the end of the race was the hardest and I just had to push through, I was hurting so much,” said Pini.
Caitlin McClatchey became the first Scottish woman to win two individual golds with her victory in the 400m freestyle. The 20-year-old had also won the 200m freestyle.
Scotland’s Gregor Tait claimed his second gold with the men’s 200m individual medley.
England’s Christopher Cook clinched a breaststroke double with victory in the 50m final and Liam Tancock took the 100m backstroke final.
Natalie Grinham beat sister Rachael in the final of the women’s squash tournament, while English veteran Peter Nicol beat world number one David Palmer of Australia to take the men’s.
Canada and England won two golds apiece in the gymnastics competition.
India shocked Singapore to snatch the men’s table-tennis team gold, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to triumph 3-2 with Roy Soumyadeep the hero, outlasting Xiao Li Cai in the deciding set.
Singapore defended the women’s title with a win over Australia.
Malaysia beat England to win the badminton mixed-team gold medal.
In shooting, India’s Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang followed their win in the 10m air-rifle pairs by taking the men’s 50m rifle three positions pairs gold.
Samaresh Jung, aiming for seven golds, picked up his third when he won the 25m centre fire pairs title with Jaspal Rana.
Tejaswini Sawant won India’s third gold of the day in the women’s 10m air-rifle individual event, but Australians Lauryn Mark and Natalia Rahman won the women’s skeet pairs.
Malik won Pakistan’s first gold of the Games with victory in the men’s 85kg weightlifting, while Canada’s Jeane Lassen won the women’s 69kg.
Australia beat Northern Ireland in the final of the men’s lawn-bowls triples final, while Malaysia took the women’s version, beating Australia. — Sapa-AFP