England's Jessica Learmonth admitted she was hanging on for dear life as she claimed the home nations’ first Commonwealth Games medal with a triathlon silver on the Gold Coast.
England’s Jessica Learmonth admitted she was hanging on for dear life as she claimed the home nations’ first Commonwealth Games medal with a triathlon silver on the Gold Coast.
The 29-year-old finished second behind Flora Duffy of Bermuda while in the men’s race Scotland’s Marc Austin won bronze as the Brownlee brothers missed out on the podium.
Learmonth is arguably her sport’s best swimmer and one of its top cyclists too but usually can’t wait for the run to end.
Duffy delivered on her favourite status to claim the first gold of the Games with Learmonth admitting she was running scared as the chasing pack closed in, with Canada’s Joanna Brown completing the podium. England teammates Vicky Holland and Sophie Coldwell were fourth and sixth respectively with Non Stanford eighth for Wales and Scotland’s Beth Potter 12th.
“It’s pretty cool to get the first medal for England, hopefully it’s the first of many. The last couple of years have been amazing, I can’t believe how quick everything has come together,” said 2017 European champion Learmonth.
“I’m just delighted and I’m glad it’s over after that run, it was hard to enjoy with everyone chasing me, I didn’t know how close they were and I was getting stressed and panicky.
“I was going flat out but I didn’t look over my shoulder, I just kept powering on.”
Double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee admitted his luck finally ran out after finishing outside the medals.
Brownlee - seeking to defend his title from Glasgow - carried the England flag at the opening ceremony but just over 16 hours later couldn’t see it raised on the podium as he finished tenth, three places behind brother Jonny, after struggling with a calf injury,
South Africa’s Ronald Schoeman took gold ahead of Australia’s Jacob Birtwhistle while Scotland’s Austin claimed bronze - an unlikely top British finisher.
“Three quarters of the race was okay but I knew I was going to really struggle on the run,” admitted Alistair, who now turns his attentions towards the team event on Saturday.
“I’ve been trying to downplay my chances because I’ve only run a handful of times in the last month or so, that’s not what you need to take on a tough field like this.”
Disappointment washed over Ben Proud in the pool after a disqualification ended his chances of defending his 50m butterfly Commonwealth crown.
The 23-year-old was adjudged to have moved his leg before the start signal, a decision upheld on appeal, with the Commonwealth record holder now shifting his focus onto the 50m freestyle.
“I really wanted to come into the competition to retain both my titles and to have that opportunity taken away in the first heat is heart breaking,” he said.
Meanwhile, Games record-holder Hannah Miley eased into the 400m individual medley final, closely followed by England’s Aimee Willmott while Abbie Wood picked up the last qualifying place.
James Guy, Daniel Jervis and Stephen Milne are all into the men’s 400m freestyle final, while Eleanor Faulkner, Holly Hibbott and Lucy Hope achieved the same in the women’s 200m freestyle as 43 final and semi-final swis were secured.
Five United Kingdom swimmers are into the women’s 50m breaststroke semi-finals, including fastest qualifier Sarah Vasey, with Games Record holder Ross Murdoch one of three Scots into the men’s 200m breaststroke final.
It was a successful start to the women’s hockey competition for England and Wales as they both recorded wins in Pool A.
Natasha Marke-Jones’ late goal secured a dramatic 3-2 victory for Wales over India while Susannah Townsend and Grace Balsdon were on target as England beat South Africa 2-0. "I think everyone was very excited. I was just so pleased to get on the scoresheet and to get the win for the team," said Marke-Jones.
In Pool B, Scotland were unable to keep the run going as they suffered a 6-1 reverse to 2014 bronze medallists New Zealand – Alison Howie scoring for the Scots.
The mixed team event got up and running on day one with both Scotland and England notching their first wins.
Scotland laid down a marker of intent with a 5-0 win over Pakistan with 2014 singles silver medallist Kirsty Gilmour confirming the victory with a straight games over Mahoor Shahzad in the third rubber.
England also recorded the same 5-0 scoreline against Uganda, with the team not dropping an entire game throughout the five rubbers.
England women needed just three events to see off Guyana in the first of their team matches on Thursday.
Tin-Tin Ho kicked matters off with a win in the women’s singles followed by Kelly Sibley before the latter teamed up with Maria Tsaptsinos in the doubles.
It was the same for the men against Ghana with Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford doing the business in the men’s singles followed by Samuel Walker and Drinkhall in the doubles.
England women and men play again today with Scotland and Northern Ireland also going in the men’s competition
The first weightlifting medals were decided with England’s Kelly-Jo Robson the highest finisher from the home nations with sixth in the women’s 48kg category.
England came out on top against rivals Scotland in the netball as a strong final quarter saw them triumph 74-28 in Pool B.
The men’s and women’s squash competitions got underway with the with a number of home nations players progressing, including England’s Alison Waters who won her round of 32 match against Meagan Best 3-0.
And it was a packed start to a busy day of lawn bowls action with women’s singles and men’s triples matches getting underway for the home nations. By Sportsbeat 2018