McKeon sets another record
BIRMINGHAM, England, Aug 3, (AP): English swimmer Adam Peaty turned a testing Commonwealth Games around with a resounding triumph in the 50-meter breaststroke final on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old Peaty, who was beaten for the first time in eight years in the 100-meter breaststroke on Sunday, had vowed to bounce back after a loss he described as devastating.
He did so in style, winning the 50 in 26.76 seconds.
Peaty, who missed the world championships in Budapest in June with a broken foot, revealed last week he was struggling for motivation after a decade of success.
But the victory clearly meant a great deal to the three-time Olympic gold medalist. It is the only major international event he had not claimed.
Australian swimmer Emma McKeon, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, become the all-time most successful Commonwealth Games athlete after another strong night in the pool.
The 28-year-old McKeon drew level with South African swimmer Chad le Clos and shooters Michael Gault and Phil Adams by winning an 18th medal with a bronze in the 100-meter freestyle.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES
She set a new mark of 19 when she claimed her fifth gold medal for the Birmingham Games as part of Australia’s mixed 4x100-meter medley relay team, extending her record of 13 career gold medals across three games.
In a dominant gymnastics display from England, there were two standout male performers.
Jake Jarman won his fourth gold medal of the meet with a victory in the vault.
Jarman’s teammate Joe Fraser managed to overcome recent injury and illness to win three gold medals in Birmingham.
Three years after winning a world championship on the parallel bars, the 23-year-old Fraser became the first English gymnast to win the event in the Commonwealth Games.
What makes Fraser’s success more extraordinary is that he limped into the athletes’ village before the Games wearing a moon boot after breaking his foot two weeks ago.
Just one month earlier, he ruptured his appendix. But inspired by competing in front of his home crowd, Fraser delivered world-class performances.
India won their first-ever gold medal in lawn bowls and also won the table tennis men’s team gold, but had to settle for silver in the badminton mixed team competition after losing an almost four-hour final to Malaysia.
The Indian quartet of Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey defeated South Africa 17-10 in the Women’s Fours event in the bowls.
Tirkey said the foursome awoke motivated by the opportunity to create history for their nation.
India’s men’s table tennis team defended the gold medal it won in 2018 by defeating Singapore 3-1 in the final.
Harmeet Desai partnered Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to win and then proved too strong for Zhe Yu Clarence Chew 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 in the third singles to clinch victory.
After five days of competition, Australia led the medal standings with 42 gold and 106 overall. England was next with 31 gold and 86 medals overall, followed by New Zealand with 13 gold, Canada with 11, South Africa with 6 and India with 5 gold medals.
India’s women’s field hockey team progressed to the medal rounds at the Commonwealth Games after edging Canada 3-2 .
In what was effectively a must-win match for both nations given their earlier pool results, India scored the winning goal with nine minutes remaining when Lalremsiami Hmarzote converted an opportunity moments after her team was awarded a penalty corner.
The win puts India into a semifinal against Australia on Friday.
Kaur Navneet and Salima Tete scored early goals for India but Canada worked its way back into the game with goals from Hannah Haughn and Brienne Stairs.
“We kept fighting until the last minute, and the last second, and that paid off with a goal,” India captain Savita Punia said. “After the Olympics we improved a lot in our attacking hockey, and we are in their circle a lot, and we
got good penetration today.”
Weightlifter Junior Periclex Ngadja Nyabeyeu was in tears after claiming Cameroon’s first gold medal of these games in the men’s 109-kilogram division with a tally of 361 kilos (796 lbs).
“It’s big, very big for me, for my family. I was crying because it was too much for me, too much to take in,” he said.