Blake & Co’s failure leaves Bolt upset
GOLD COAST: English sprinters finally found their mojo as the Commonwealthgamestrackand field events came to a head on Saturday, forcing Jamaican legend Usain Bolt to ponder coming out of retirement.
England’s speed demons finished on a high note after a disappointing Games blighted by misfortune, rocketing to a golden double in the 4x100 metres relays.
Zharnel Hughes, stripped of gold in the 200m earlier this week, helped the men’s quartet bring the baton round in 38.13 seconds, ahead of South Africa and Jamaica.
Bolt, who retired last year after almost a decade of dominance, tweeted about returning to the sport after watching the English snatch Jamaica’s Commonwealth title.
“Did I retire too soon? Hmmm,” the eight-time Olympic champion posted to his 5.1 million followers. “Watching the relay just now made me ask myself a few questions.”
Informed of Bolt’s message, English anchor leg Harry Aikines-aryeetey shot back: “They need him to beat us now! Last time in Glasgow we gave the baton ahead of him and they can’t handle us without him.”
South Africa, including 100m champion Akani Simbine and runner-up Henricho Bruintjies, took silver in 38.24 with Yohan Blake anchoring Jamaica to bronze in 38.35. “I was always playing catch-up on that last leg,” said Blake, who could only finish third behind the South Africans in the 100m earlier in the week.
“Jamaica was dominating for a while but we’re going through a transition period.”
Lorraine Ugen then brought England’s women home first in the 4x100m relay, despite having double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson breathing down her neck, to win in 42.46.
Jamaica hit back to win the women’s 4x400m relay, before Botswana raced away to win the men’s 4x400m.
BLAKE HIDING FROM BOLT AFTER LOSS
Jamaica’s Yohan Blake admitted that he was doing his best to avoid Usain Bolt after his Commonwealth Games flop in the 100 metres. Bolt, who retired last year after dominating the sport for almost a decade, had joked to his countryman that he would not be able to return to Jamaica unless he won the title.
After Blake slumped to third in last Monday’s final on the Gold Coast, Bolt arrived in Australia looking to poke a little fun at his former team-mate.
“I know Usain is going to trouble me a lot because he expected me to get gold,” said Blake after taking bronze in the 4x100m relay.
“I’m going to hide from him when I go back home,” added Blake. “He tried to contact me but I hid my phone.”
Indian men’s hockey team finished a disappointing fourth at the Commonwealth Games as it struggled to breach a stout England defence to lose the bronze medal match 1-2.
England avenged their 3-4 loss to India in the group stage as Sam Ward (7th minute, 43rd minute) struck twice for the winners while Varun Kumar (27th) was the lone goal scorer for India.
India had won silver in the previous two editions, ending runners-up to Australia on both occasion. India captain Manpreet Singh was very upset with the outcome.
“We came here for a medal, but we didn’t achieve that. We played really bad and I really don’t feel like going anywhere tonight. We are so disappointed, we did not expect this result,” said Manpreet.
Coach Sjoerd Marijne was also disappointed. “In our close matches, we’ve got to take every opportunity and we don’t do it. We give it to them too easily and that’s been happening the whole tournament. I hope they (Indian players) don’t ever want to experience this any more,” he said.
“For me the highlight was the first match against England, the last two minutes and we’d hoped it was also possible now, but that’s too bad.”
Though India had better ball possession in the initial minutes of the first quarter, England were far more dominating with intense attack.
WOMEN SUFFER HUMILIATING LOSS
Indian women’s hockey team suffered a 0-6 defeat in the bronze medal match against England to finish fourth on Saturday.
India could convert none of the five penalty corners and their defence line-up cracked under pressure in the final quarter to go out of the tournament on an embarrassing note.
India had beaten England 2-1 in Pool matches but was outclassed on Saturday. It is now the third straight time that Indian women’s hockey team will return empty-handed from the Games as the last time it stood on podium was in 2006 when it won silver.
Sophie Gray stood out with her stellar show as she steered her side to win with her three field goals.