MORE GO MISSING

SQUASH: Two male squash players from Sierra Leone are the latest African athletes to miss their events. Hours after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned athletes who breached their visa conditions they’d be tracked down, locked up and deported, Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray did not appear for their men’s doubles match yesterday morning. Games officials confirmed a Rwandan athlete, two Ugandans and potentially one Ghanaian were also gone, after Cameroon revealed on Wednesday that eight of its 42-strong Games team were missing.

PROBE LED TO BANS

DOPING: Three Australians barred from the Games for doping offences were targeted in an intelligence-led pre-Games program. Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority boss David Sharpe said “a number of international” athletes were targeted for testing before the Games and three Australians were among those taken out of selection contention. Mr Sharpe said the program had been established to prevent clean athletes being denied the opportunity to take part in the Games. In February, sprinter Jessica Peris was forced to withdraw from selection trials after testing positive to a banned substance, and powerlifters Sieraya O’Driscoll and Brendan Hunt were given bans by ASADA in March.

KIWI WAY AHEAD

ATHLETICS: Dame Valerie Adams’ hopes of a fourth Games gold medal in shot put are on track after the Kiwi qualified yesterday. In her fifth Games, just six months after the birth of daughter Kimoana, the 33-year-old needed just one effort to better the automatic 16.50m standard. The double Olympic champion’s 18.52m was a season’s best, in only her third competition of the year, and topped the list of qualifiers by just over a metre. Second place went to Canadian Brittany Crew on 17.50, while Trinidad and Tobago’s Cleopatra Borel was just 4cm behind, with the pair set to provide Adams’s main competition in today’s final.

Kenyan stars await 1500m hope

ATHLETICS: No way is Ryan Gregson complaining, but he has one of the toughest gigs at the Commonwealth Games.

The national record holder made a big breakthrough in Rio in 2016 when he became the first Australian man in 40 years to contest an Olympic 1500m final, finishing ninth.

The obvious next step on his journey is a podium finish at a major international meet.

Standing in his way on the Gold Coast are Kenyan stars Elijah Manangoi and Timothy Cheruiyot, the gold and silver medallists respectively at last year’s World Championships.

“There has been a bit of talk that they’re going to try and run really fast, like they did at the world championships,” the 27-year-old Gregson told AAP.

“If that’s the case I’ll look forward to it because I do like running off a faster pace.

“I can handle a slow pace, but I do prefer a faster pace, so that should play into my hands.”

Gregson (pictured) has been drawn in the first of two heats today along with fellow Aussie Luke Mathews and Cheruiyot.

Even though qualifying for the Olympic final was a significant achievement, Gregson has vowed never again to consider that a pass mark.

“Winning sometimes may be unrealistic but that is my aim each time I race,” he said. — AAP MOUNTAIN BIKING: Australia’s mountain biking McConnells saw their Commonwealth Games dreams go up in the Nerang dust in back-to-back disappointments.

Both Rebecca (pictured) and Daniel McConnell, who were married last December, entered their respective cross country races as realistic chances for gold after claiming bronze medals in Glasgow.

But they couldn’t keep up on the unforgiving 27km Gold Coast circuit, Rebecca sixth and Daniel seventh as England and New Zealand dominated.

England’s Annie Last broke away from the pack to win the women’s race in one hour 18 minutes and two seconds.

McConnell, the lone Australian in the field, finished more than four minutes behind. “It was pretty s..t to be honest, I just had terrible legs,” she said. “There’s so much build up to get yourself ready, physically and emotionally, so to see it riding away from you is hard. “It really sucks.” Husband Daniel was more than two minutes adrift of Kiwi Sam Gaze, who somehow chased compatriot Anton Cooper down on the last lap despite having to stop to fix a problem with his bike.

“I just couldn’t go with the surges early on,” Daniel said.

— AAP LAWN BOWLS: Australia’s oldest Games athlete, lawn bowler Ken Hanson, has lived up to his Bandit nickname, dramatically stealing a gold medal in the open triples with a disability.

Down by one deep in the 15th end of the B6/B7/B8 event yesterday, 68-year-old Hanson produced the bowl of his life with the final delivery of the final to pinch a 14-13 win over New Zealand.

Having comeback from 10-3 down to take the lead at the final change, the Kiwis were on track to claim the title before Hanson’s heroics.

But he blasted two NZ balls away from the jack and sealed the win with the perfect draw shot to send the Broadbeach Lawn Bowls club into raptures.

“There wasn’t no draw shot or anything like that,” Hanson (pictured) said of his first bowl.

“It was just to let it go as hard as I could and hope I hit the right ball, which it did.

“It went on to the other one, that was a bonus, which left us with (one more).”

Hanson, who is easily the most senior member of Australia’s Games team, said he had never dreamed of sporting a gold medal on the podium.

“If you had of told me 18 months ago that I’d be standing here about to get a gold medal, I would’ve said you’re kidding yourself,” he said. — AAP