Australia finish at top of medals table as India ‘move’ into fourth
BIRMINGHAM, England, Aug 9, (AP): Australia finished the Commonwealth Games at the top of the medals table with 67 golds, 11 more than England. The Aussies won 178 medals overall to beat host England by two.
Canada finished third with 26 gold medals, while India moved into fourth with 22 golds after a successful final day.
Australia beat India 7-0 in the men’s field hockey final, maintaining a perfect record of having claimed the gold medal all seven times the sport has been included in the Commonwealth Games.
“That is what we pride ourselves on,” said Blake Glovers, who scored one of Australia’s goals. “It’s awesome to do it without too much of a heart problem.”
India had success elsewhere ahead of the closing ceremony at Alexander Stadium.
Former No. 1-ranked junior Lakshya Sen beat Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 and Pusarla Venkata Sindhu made it a golden double by defeating Michelle Li of Canada 21-15, 21-13 in the badminton finals
India also claimed a gold medal in men’s doubles.
Press Association. “So, definitely, one of the elements of legacy is thinking about how we can use the facilities and the experience to bid for other major international sporting events. I don’t think it is an unrealistic ambition to say that the Olympics could be one of them.
“Of course, there has been a trend for multi-city bids in lots of international sporting events and, again, Birmingham will absolutely be in that mix going forward, because it has showcased itself in an incredibly professional way.”
Victoria has even less time to prepare
for the next Commonwealth Games, with its bid only approved this year, though cities including Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo have strong existing infrastructure.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Katie Sadleir said the Birmingham crowds are comparable to the successful event hosted by Melbourne in 2006 and raised confidence about the future of the competition.
She has held informal talks with representatives from “three to four” nations about editions from 2030 onwards with a view to giving future hosts more time to prepare.
“My gut feeling is (we will) look for board approval and we will come out in the first quarter and we will most likely look for 2030 and 2034 because of the nature of the discussions that we have been having,” she said.
“Not everyone can pull off what Birmingham has done and Victoria is about to do in a very short lead time in terms of staging a spectacular Games. And because we’ve opened up the hosting model to be quite flexible and innovative, for some it will take longer than a three-and-ahalf year or four-year window to pull something off.”
WASHINGTON, Aug 9, (AP): Saying “the countdown has begun,” 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams announced Tuesday she is ready to step away from tennis so she can turn her focus to having another child and her business interests, presaging the end of a career that transcended sports.
In an essay released Tuesday by Vogue magazine, and a post on Instagram - the sorts of direct-to-fans communication favored these days by celebrities, a category she most definitely fits - Williams wasSer, but it could happen at the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 29 in New York.
TENNIS
“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction. That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun,” Williams, who turns 41 next month, wrote on Instagram. “I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just (as) exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks.”
Williams, one of the greatest and most accomplished athletes in the history of her - or any other - sport, wrote in the essay that she does not like the word “retirement” and prefers to think of this stage of her life as “evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”
“I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads,” she wrote. “I keep saying to myself, I wish it could be easy for me, but it’s not. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.”
Williams is playing this week in Toronto, at a hard-court tournament that leads into the U.S. Open. That will be the year’s last Grand Slam event and one she has won six times, most recently in 2014, to go along with seven titles apiece at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, plus three at the French Open.
She also owns 14 Grand Slam doubles championships, all won with her older sister, Venus, part of a remarkable tale of two siblings from Compton, California, who grew up to both be ranked No. 1, win dozens of trophies and dominate tennis for stretches - a story told in the Oscar-winning film “King Richard.”
The official Twitter feed for Wimbledon posted this message Tuesday above a photo of Williams: “Some play the game. Others change it.”
“I don’t particularly like to think about my legacy. I get asked about it a lot, and I never know exactly what to say. But I’d like to think that thanks to opportunities afforded to me, women athletes feel that they can be themselves on the court,” Williams wrote. “They can play with aggression and pump their fists. They can be strong yet beautiful. They can wear what they want and say what they want and kick butt and be proud of it all.”
A victory Monday in Toronto was Williams’ first tour win in a singles match in more than a year.
The American has won more Grand Slam singles titles in the professional era than any other woman or man. Only one player, Margaret Court, collected more, 24, although the Australian won a portion of hers in the amateur era.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously I do. But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a Grand Slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record,” Williams said. “Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus Grand Slams.”
But, Williams went on to write, “These days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resume and building my family, I choose the latter.”
She and her husband, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, have a daughter, Olympia, who turns 5 on Sept. 1.
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” said Williams, who was pregnant when she won the 2017 Australian Open for her last Grand Slam trophy. “If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”