From unknown to silver medallist in the space of 49 minutes, Harry Tanfield has joined his brother on the world cycling stage.
From unknown to silver medallist in the space of 49 minutes, Harry Tanfield has joined his brother on the world cycling stage.
Harry, 23, came to Australia as a self-proclaimed gap-filler, riding the Commonwealth Games time trial for Team England because more decorated riders were absent.
But the elder Tanfield sibling can now share podium stories with younger brother Charlie after picking up silver on Currumbin beachfront behind Australian Cameron Meyer to add to his brother’s gold and silver from the track.
“I had no idea how I’d do. I know my power and what I can do but I didn’t know what I could do in the heat. But it wasn’t actually that hot in the end,” he said.
“But I haven’t done a 40-minute TT effort since October last year. I’d only done a 20-minute effort up until this point.
“So I was a bit uncertain about how it was going to do. I just thought I’d ride it, err on the side of caution at the start and just see how it goes.
“Pushing yourself in a race is so different to doing it in training. But it’s a good way so start the year I guess, with a silver medal.”
Brother Charlie finished eighth, one place above teammate Ian Bibby while Guernsey’s James McLaughlin and Northern Ireland’s Marcus Christie were sixth and seventh.
Meanwhile in the women’s race, there was also bronze for England’s Hayley Simmonds behind comprehensive winner Katrin Garfoot of Australia. Scotland’s Katie Archibald was fourth.
As birthday presents go, Commonwealth Games gold – with a Games record to boot – is right up there with the best.
That’s exactly what Welsh shooter David Phelps gave himself as the home nations completed a clean sweep of the podiums in both the 50m rifle prone and Queen’s Prize pairs.
The 41-year-old Phelps, who also won Commonwealth gold back in Melbourne in 2006, triumphed with a Games record total score of 248.8 in the 50m rifle prone to defeat Scotland’s Neil Stirton in the final elimination round, as England’s Kenneth Parr took bronze.
And the Welshman was serenaded with ‘Happy Birthday’ by the crowd following his victory.
“It is truly awesome and epic,” said Phelps. “It is a very pleasant surprise. I knew I had it in me to get to the final, but I managed to hold my nerve and just rely on 20 or 30 years of experience.
“Having the crowd sing 'Happy Birthday' to me afterwards was very special. My friends and family came halfway around the world to see me.”
In the Queen’s Prize pairs, it was England who came out on top as David Luckman and Parag Patel beat Wales’ Gareth Morris and Chris Watson to retain their Commonwealth title.
In the event, competitors fire at targets over five distances and although they were third heading into the final distance, Patel and Luckman finished strongly to overhaul the Welsh duo, with Scotland’s Alexander Walker and Ian Shaw taking third.
Tom Daley has been forced to withdraw from the individual 10m platform event at the Commonwealth Games because of a hip injury.
The 23-year-old has been struggling with the issue and rested over the weekend in a bid to be fit for the individual event which will take place on the final day of diving on Saturday.
Daley and his training team agreed that he should not compete in the event due to ongoing medical issues alongside a further injury suffered in the pool last week.
Due to prior illness and with his hips being the determining factor, some of the dives would have been too dangerous and impactful on his body.
Daley still plans to compete in the synchronised 10m platform alongside Dan Goodfellow on Friday, with that event putting less strain on his body.
He said: “I am truly devastated not to be competing in the individual event. I have been training so hard for the Commonwealth Games, so this is a real disappointment for me.
“The hardest thing for any athlete is coping with an injury, especially when it means they can’t compete in what they have been working towards. I continue training for the 10m synchronised diving event alongside Dan.”
Olympic medallist Eilidh Doyle eased her way into the women’s 400m hurdles final as part of a successful morning on the athletics track for the home nations.
Scot Doyle – who took bronze as part of the 4x400m relay team at Rio 2016 – looked supreme as she won her heat in a time of 54.80 to book a spot in Thursday’s final.
A septet of Brits also advanced through the heats in the men’s and women’s 200m – Team England’s Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty, Dina Asher-Smith, Bianca Williams and Finette Agyapong being joined by Northern Ireland’s Amy Foster and Leon Reid.
Meanwhile, Kyle Langford produced a trademark late burst to finish second in his 800m heat and edge his way into Thursday’s final, while Scotland’s Jake Wightman did likewise in his heat.
Jack Green qualified for the men’s 400m hurdles final, while England compatriot John Lane is fourth in the decathlon with two events remaining.
It was Chris Gregory and Jake Sheaf who won the battle on the beach between England and Scotland as they defeated Robin Brodski and Seain Cook to reach the semi-finals of the beach volleyball.
The two faced up on the Cooolangatta Beach on Tuesday with the English duo winning the first set 21-14 in 17 minutes before an even closer second set saw Scotland lead 16-13.
But England turned things around to come through and win 21-17 in 38 minutes.
There was less good news for the women’s duo of Victoria Palmer and Jess Grimson as they lost to Pata Miller and Linline Matauatu of Vanuatu 23-25 21-19 15-12. Scotland women play their quarter-final against Canada later in the day.
England clinched their place in the last four of the men’s hockey competition but only after Sam Ward completed a 3-2 comeback win over Wales.
The English trailed 2-0 at half-time after Welsh goals for Luke Hawker and Ben Francis but Ward’s hat-trick saw them into the final four with one group game against India still to go.
In the boxing ring, Luke McCormack silenced a vocal Aussie home crowd to beat Liam Wilson and guarantee himself a men’s light welterweight medal.
Brother Pat McCormack fights Uganda’s Musa Bwogi in the welterweight quarter-finals looking to join his brother on the podium and in the final four. There are also guaranteed medals for Northern Ireland’s Michaela Walsh and England’s Galal Yafai after they both also won their quarter-final bouts.
At the netball, Scotland lost out in a thrilling match against Malawi, going down 51-50 while Northern Ireland beat Barbados 49-39 in Pool B.
Elsewhere the group stages of the badminton singles and doubles and table tennis singles got underway with the lawn bowls continuing at pace.
Sportsbeat 2018