Games treble for le Clos, Peaty extends golden run
Gold Coast, April 7: Chad le Clos made history and Adam Peaty completed a four- year unbeaten cycle as two of the Commonwealth Games’ top swimmers lit up the Gold Coast on Saturday.
Le Clos’s 200 metres butterfly victory made him the first man to win the same event three times at the Games, while Peaty extended his remarkable 100m breaststroke winning streak. It came on a day when Australia won two more swimming golds and another two in track cycling to reach 20 at the top of the medals table, ahead of England on 14.
Le Clos grabbed his second gold of these Games and sixth overall with victory in the 200m fly, his pet event, in which he famously stunned Michael Phelps at the 2012 Olympics.
Although two women, Australia’s Leisel Jones and Petria Thomas, have won the three golds in the same event, le Clos becomes the first male swimmer to complete a hat- trick. “I wanted to get the three — 2014, 2016, 2018. No one has done the triple before so I feel like the Michael Phelps of the Commonwealth ( Games).”
At Anna Meares Velodrome, Australian cyclist Sam Welsford won the men’s 15km scratch race and Kaarle McCulloch triumphed in the women’s 500m time trial — but world champion Matthew Glaetzer was stunned in the sprint.
England’s Nile Wilson gritted his teeth through a wrist injury to win the allaround gymnastics, pipping team- mate James Hall on the final apparatus, the high bar. Canada’s Ellie Black took the women’s all- around title to add to her team gold won a day earlier.
Australia edged Jonny Brownlee’s England to win the triathlon mixed team relay and in the Games’ inaugural para triathlon, Australia’s Bill Chaffey took bronze after a heavy crash on his hand bike.
— AFP