The world record-breaking Dolphins of the women's relay celebrate (Photo: AUS Commonwealth Team; Graphic: Will Cuckson)
Day Three of the Commonwealth Games was filled with highlights for Australia, as the country extended its lead on the top of the medal tally. The Inner Sanctum runs through every Australian represented event.
Lawn Bowls
The Australian Lawn Bowls team continued their campaign for gold medals across the board on day three.
The para women’s pairs B6-B8 tasted defeat against the English 22-5 in the first Aussie match of the day.
The para men’s pairs of the class came away with a victory against Wales, 15-11.
The triples in the men’s had their quarterfinals, in which they defeated Malaysia 24-14 to progress through to the semi finals.
In the women’s singles quarter finals, Aussie Ellen Ryan emerged victorious to move on to the next round.
Finally, the para mixed pairs B2-B3 were successful in their match against New Zealand, winning 25-9.
Gymnastics – Artistic
The artistic gymnastics saw a medal event for both the men and women, with multiple Aussies across both vying for the golds.
In the men’s, Clay Mason Stephens and Jesse Moore competed, with Stephens finishing 11th, narrowly missing out on the top 10. Moore on the other hand suffered a shoulder injury, forcing himself to retire from the event early after qualifying in fourth for the event.
In the women’s all around final, Georgia Godwin took home the gold medal for Australia, finishing with a score of 53.550. Godwin was particularly enhanced with a clinical performance on the balance beam.
Hockey
The Aussies started the day off with a bang, with the men dominating their first game.
Australia demolished Scotland 12-0, with defender Jeremy Hayward scoring the most past the goalkeeper with four.
Following the men, the women also claimed a victory against South Africa, winning 5-0. Penny Squibb scored two goals for the Aussies.
Table Tennis
The table tennis saw semi final action on day three, with teams playing to head to the gold medal match.
The Australian women’s team were defeated in their semi final, losing 3-0 to Singapore, meaning they will head to the bronze medal match.
Weightlifting
There were two Aussies competing in the weightlifting finals throughout the day, vying to extend Australia’s lead at the top of the medal tally.
In the women’s 59kg final, Brenna Kean finished fifth with a 189 score from the judges, just seven votes out of medal contention.
The men’s 73kg final was contested by Aussie Brandon Dean Wakeling. He achieved a score of 290 and finished fifth, just eight points away from the podium.
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Cycling – Track
The Aussie cyclists hit the Lee Valley VeloPark again on day three, with even more medals up for grabs.
In the men’s sprint qualifying round, all three Aussies in the race qualified for the next round, with Matthew Richardson, Matthew Glaetzer and Thomas Cornish finding their way in second, fourth and fifth respectively.
In the men’s sprint 1/8 finals that followed the earlier proceedings, the three competing Aussies in Richardson, Glaetzer and Cornish all managed to win their heats and proceed to the quarter finals.
Richardson was then able to move on to the semi’s in three races, while Glaetzer and Cornish were pitted against each other, resulting in Cornish being defeated in two.
Richardson and Glaetzer raced against separate opponents in the hopes of making the final, with Richardson being successful in his bid to race for the gold, while Glaetzer was defeated.
In the gold medal match, Richardson took out the gold medal, beating out Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul, while Glaetzer couldn’t take the bronze medal from Scotland’s Jack Carlin.
In the men’s tandem B, Beau Wootton qualified for the semi finals, finishing in third place.
Following on from his qualification, he was unable to progress through to the gold medal race, however he did manage to defeat Wales’ Alex Pope to secure a bronze medal for Australia.
The men’s 15km scratch race qualifying rounds saw three Aussies in James Moriarty, Graeme Frislie and Joshua Duffy compete over two heats.
The three Australians then competed in the scratch race final, where Frislie was the only one able to complete the race, finishing in sixth place.
Both Frislie and Moriarty progressed from the first heat, with Duffy also qualifying from the second heat.
The women’s tandem B 1000m time trial final saw Jessica Gallagher win another gold medal for Australia, defeating Sophie Unwin and Aileen McGlynn on the podium by under 0.5 seconds.
In the 25km points race for the women, Australia took home another gold medal through Georgia Baker, who dominated the contest and finished well clear of second-placed Neah Evans.
The women’s 500m time trial saw an Australian break the previous games record, as Kristina Clonan claimed the gold, narrowly beating out Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell by 0.06 seconds.
Rugby Sevens
With the finals for the Rugby Sevens on day three, the men and women had varying success.
The men’s played in the semi final earlier in the day against South Africa. The first half was tied up 12-12, before South Africa ran away in the second to knock Australia out of gold medal contention.
The men then took on New Zealand in the bronze medal match and again tasted defeat, going down 26-12.
For the women, they competed in the gold medal match against Fiji.
After a scintillating first half where the Aussies piled on 17-0, they cruised home to claim the gold medal, defeating Fiji 22-12.
Faith Nathan scored the first two tries of the game for the Aussies and lead all comers.
Swimming
The Aussie Dolphins looked to continue their domination of the pool on day three, with more medals up for grabs in the later stages of the day.
To start the day off, Bowen Gough and Brendon Smith were able to qualify out of the 200m butterfly heats, both coming out of heat two.
The final unfortunately didn’t yield any medals for the Aussies, with Gough finishing in fourth and just out of medal contention, while Smith finished in eight.
The women’s 200m breaststroke saw three Aussies qualify, as Abbey Harkin, Jenna Strauch and Taylor McKeown were split among two heats.
The final saw Strauch finish second and earn a silver medal, in between the South African pair of Tatjana Schoenmaker and Kaylene Corbett. Harkin and McKeown finished fifth and sixth respectively.
In the men’s 50m backstroke, Bradley Woodward, Ben Armbruster and Mitchell Larkin all qualified for the next round.
In the semi finals, Woodward and Armbruster both qualified out of separate heats to get through to the gold medal race, while Larkin could not qualify.
The women’s 50m butterfly saw Emma McKeon, Alex Perkins and Holly Barratt competing and all qualifying to head through to the next round.
All three women then progressed through to the gold medal match, with McKeon finishing first in her heat.
The men’s 100m freestyle heats were the final heats earlier in the day. Zac Incerti, Kyle Chalmers and William Xu Yang competed in the final two heats, again with all three qualifying for the semi finals
In the semi finals, all three Aussies competed in the same heat and qualified to the final. Chalmers swam spectacularly and broke a Games record to top the heat, with Xu Yang finishing third and Incerti fifth.
In the women’s 100m backstroke S8 final, both Isabella Vincent and Ella Jones competed but couldn’t get onto the podium, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.
The men’s 100m breaststroke SB8 final saw both Timothy Hodge and Blake Cochrane get onto the podium, finishing second and third respectively, losing out to New Zealand’s Joshua Willmer.
It was an Aussie hat trick in the women’s 50m freestyle final, with Emma McKeon taking home the gold while Meg Harris and Shayna Jack took silver and bronze respectively.
McKeon’s win meant she now owns the record for the most gold medals by any athlete in the history of the Commonwealth Games.
The women’s 100m backstroke continued to fall in favour of the Aussies, with Kaylee McKeown breaking a Games record and claiming the gold medal. Fellow Aussie Minna Atherton just missed out on the podium, finishing fourth.
Aussies took two of the three places on the podium in the men’s 100m breaststroke final but couldn’t claim the gold, with Zac Stubblety-Cook and Sam Williamson achieving a silver and bronze respectively behind England’s James Wilby.
And in the final swimming event of the day, the Aussies saved the best until last. The women’s 4x200m freestyle relay saw the group of Madison Wilson, Kiah Melverton, Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus break a world record.
They completed the race in 7:39.29, with their closest competitor being 12.69 seconds behind them in what was a scintillating swim to cap off the Dolphins day.
Triathlon
The triathlon saw three medal events, with the Aussies featuring heavily in proceedings.
In the men’s PTVI final, Sam Harding and Jonathan Goerlach finished second and third respectively, providing Australia with two more medals to add to their tally.
Fellow Aussie Gerrard Gosens also finished sixth in the race.
The women’s PTVI final had just one Aussie competing, with Erica Burleigh finishing the race in sixth position, producing a strong swimming component.
The final triathlon event was the mixed team relay, which resulted in Wales and Australia battling for a second placed finish. Wales eventually came out on top, finishing three seconds ahead.
Boxing
With only three members competing, the boxing saw limited rewards for the Aussies on day three.
Kristy Lee Harris tasted defeat in the women’s light flyweight round of 16, losing on points.
In the second bout for the Aussies, Billy Polkinghorne also suffered defeat, losing 4-1 on points in the men’s light welterweight round of 16.
In the men’s middleweight bout in the round of 16, Callum Peters was able to defeat Sumit of India 5-0 and progress to the quarter finals.
Squash
With also limited Aussies competing, the individual squash matches also saw varying success.
Jess Turnbull was the first Aussie to compete, losing 3-1 to England’s Lucy Turmel and failing to progress to the next round.
In the women’s individual round of 16, Donna Lobban also couldn’t get the victory, losing 3-0 to Emily Whitlock of Wales.
Beach Volleyball
Beach volleyball saw the women compete in Pool B, where they faced Sri Lanka.
The team of Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy took home a 2-0 set victory, as they look to progress to the next round.
Basketball 3×3
The basketball 3×3 saw both men and women compete, with varying success across the board.
The men took on England and couldn’t progress to the semi finals, losing 17-12.
The women on the other hand played Sri Lanka and were dominant in victory, winning 21-2. Marena Whittle top scored for the Aussies with eight points.
The Aussies competed in both the men and women’s group stage games on day in the wheelchair basketball 3×3 also.
The men first took on Northern Ireland and were defeated 11-9, with Northern Ireland’s Conn Nagle putting up five points.
The women then played South Africa and took the victory, beating them 21-3. Amber Merritt was deadly, scoring 11 points on 9/12 shooting.
Cricket
The Aussie women had the opportunity to continue their winning run to start the campaign, playing off against Barbados.
The Aussies bowled Barbados out for 64, before making short work of the Barbados bowling attack, hitting the total in the ninth over.
Meg Lanning top scored for the Aussies, posting 36 not out, while Alana King took four wickets for eight runs.
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